Instagram is launching a suite of new features aimed at enhancing real-world social interactions and content discovery, including a live location-sharing tool called Instagram Map. The rollout comes as the Meta-owned platform increasingly positions itself in direct competition with Snapchat and TikTok.
The Instagram Map feature allows users to share their most recent app activity location with friends and view content tied to nearby places. Location sharing is opt-in and not updated in real time—only when the app is opened. This mirrors, but doesn’t fully replicate, Snapchat’s Snap Map, which has over 400 million monthly active users and offers optional real-time tracking.
In addition to showing friends’ posts and stories by location, Instagram Map also supports leaving short messages or “Notes” visible to others on the map. While Instagram already supports time-limited real-time location sharing via DMs, the new map adds a broader, more persistent layer of spatial interaction, reminiscent of Zenly, the now-defunct social mapping app Snap acquired and shut down in 2023.
Instagram is also introducing Reposts, a feature that lets users share reels and feed posts from others. These reposts can appear in followers’ feeds and will be collected under a new tab on the user’s profile. Users can annotate reposts with personal notes.
Finally, Instagram is expanding its “Friends” tab in Reels – which shows public content your friends have engaged with – to a global audience. Privacy-conscious users will have the option to hide their own interactions or mute visibility of engagement from specific users.
Instagram Map is rolling out first in the United States, with international availability expected in the coming weeks. The move underscores Instagram’s ongoing strategy of incorporating successful features from competing platforms while carving out its own vision of social connectivity.
