Instagram has rolled out a new update for its iOS and Android apps that will now provide users with better editing and search capabilities.
The Instagram 6.2 update becomes available on Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store on Monday. It's not an earth-shattering update that will bring in thousands of new sign-ups for the photo-sharing service; the new features were designed to improve the Instagram experience.
Most remarkable among these new features is the ability to edit photo captions, a feature that many users ranging from those victimized by Autocorrect to grammar Nazis who are infuriated over the confusion between "your" and "you're" have long been asking for. To edit a caption, users can simply tap the new Edit option that appears below every photo and type in the new caption. Other users will be able to know if a photo's caption has been edited, as the word "Edited" appears below a revised caption.
"When you share a moment to Instagram, a typo shouldn't get in the way," says Instagram in a blog post. "This has been one of the top requests that we've heard from the community, and we're excited to finally bring it to you today."
Instagram also revamped its existing Explore feature to include a new People tab. Users will find that the Explore icon has been changed into a magnifying glass, which they can tap to bring up the old Photos tab, the familiar scrolling grid of images from friends they already follow, and the new People tab. The People tab is a new feature that gathers posts from other accounts that users might be interested in. A spokesperson for Instagram tells VentureBeat that the accounts are picked "based on a variety of factors, including who you follow, who you're connected to and what you like on Instagram."
Around 40 percent of Instagram users use the Explore feature every day, according to Instagram, and the inclusion of the People tab could be the website's next step towards expanding its advertising efforts, which are currently limited to a small set of sponsored content from "a handful of brands."
Also included is a new search-ahead feature that allows users to get quicker results as they search. The feature is not announced in Instagram's blog post, but it appears in its apps' change logs. This allows users to view search results that appear dynamically even as they are still typing their search query.
