The year 2021 has witnessed Instagram and other social media platforms testing and launching various updates and features to revolutionize the user experience. In yet another platform update, Instagram is reported to be testing a mention & location add-on feature directly from the stories text tool, longer story segments of up to 60 seconds, and has also added a hidden spam messages inbox to its spam messages inbox.

Mention And Location From Stories Text Tool

If the feature goes live, it will allow users to mention or add the location directly from stories text. Put in simple words, currently, the users have to select the location option from the ones mentioned in the story inbox With the latest test run, Instagrammers will be allowed to tag the location directly from the text tool.

Social Media expert Ahmed Ghanem spotted the test run and tweeted about it:

Along with tagging the location, the users will also be able to mention someone on their stories in a similar manner. The Mention and Location options are mentioned at the bottom of the story view.

Hidden Spam Messages Inbox

Matt Navarra took to Twitter to highlight an important addition to the message requests section of Instagram DMs. The social media consultant spotted a hidden requests tab under the DM requests. The update is live on Android and iOS devices with the latest updated version of Instagram.

Message requests that may deem offensive or unwanted will appear in the spam folder. Under it, a user can also manage its settings with options like advanced comment filtering, hide message requests, custom words and phrases, and more.

Also Read: Instagram releases Trends to foresee in 2022

60 Second Stories on Instagram

Instagram has reportedly decided to implement some user feedback regarding the Stories segment. Users were often seen complaning about the time limit on Instagram stories set at 15 seconds unlike regular posts were one minute long videos can be posted. If you record or upload a video longer than 15 seconds, it will automatically get split into multiple different stories and not as an individual video.

The feature has finally made its way on Instagram stories wherein the app will allow users to upload stories and videos panning 60 seconds and will not be segmented. This will make Instagram level up with its competitor platforms like Snapchat that has allowed its users to upload one minute stories for quite some time now.