Instgram has been busy adding upgrades and now it's making it easier for iOS users to share photos and videos from other apps.
When Apple released its iOS 8 back in 2014, it added a feature that proved to be very popular: share extensions. With this feature, developers could enhance an app experience by allowing shares from other apps.
Share extensions have been enabled for a good while on many popular applications, including Facebook and Twitter, but for some reason Instagram only added the feature now, two years later, for iOS users.
An official Instagram share extension has been among the most highly-requested features since iOS 8 came out and it's now finally possible with the new Instagram version 8.2, available for download now on iTunes.
This means that iOS users can share photos and videos from iOS apps such as Photos directly to Instagram, without having to open the Instagram app first. Easier sharing is a nice perk, and users can also add a caption to go along with the photo or video they want to share.
On the other hand, this share extension comes with limitations. Posting from another app directly to Instagram does not support filters and other editing features. For these, users will still have to launch the full Instagram app.
If the limitations are not that important, here's how to make use of the new Instagram trick. First of all, make sure you have the very latest version of Instagram. Next up, launch Photos or another such app, select an item and hit share, then select "More" to open up a list of more apps. From there, select Instagram, arrange where you'd like to place it on the sheet of apps and tap "done." From now on, Instagram will be displayed on the share list where you can share photos.
The share extension works with the iOS Photos app, Google Photos, the official Reddit app and more.
It may have taken a long time, but Instagram finally joined the cool kids' party with its latest iOS app update. Other recent Instagram changes include a new algorithm for organizing one's feed, displaying a new timeline that prioritizes the posts you care about most rather than showing posts in chronological order. Instagram also announced new tools for small businesses earlier this month, introducing "Insights" and "Business Profile" features.
