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12/22/2024 08:39:24 pm

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Instagram Unveils New Update on Explore Tab

The Instagram 7.20 version is coming to iOS and Android but it will only be available in the United States for now.

(Photo : Reuters) The Instagram 7.20 version is coming to iOS and Android but it will only be available in the United States for now.

Instagram is launching its overhauled Explore tab, giving videos a little more priority and popularity.

The Instagram 7.20 version is coming to iOS and Android but it will only be available in the United States for now. Instagram has been gradually improving the Explore tab over the years; launching What’s Popular in 2012, personalizing the photos it showed in 2014 and adding Trends and places search in 2015.

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The feature will have a personalized channel called “Videos You Might Like” that will collect videos from across Instagram's global community and also will include a “Featured” column highlighting videos on specific topics. Explore works the same way it did before, surfacing video and photos that will probably interest the users to make it easier to discover new content.

The new channels are inserted amongst the thumbnails of photos to check out on the Explore page. Upon opening them, it will auto-play one video after another without looping to create a lean-back viewing experience. This is also akin to the recent Snapchat auto-advance update and the Watch button on Vine that launched just earlier this week.

In addition, Explore refines its suggestions based on things that people ‘like’ on the website. It says that the more a user likes things, the better Explore’s suggestions will be. As always, users can choose to “See Fewer Posts Like This” for things they do not enjoy seeing to help Explore filter its personalized suggestions.

Video has become a major focus for Instagram. It has extended the length of time users can record videos from 15 seconds to a minute added. Filters, rolled out view counts, and even debuted Twitter Moment-like video channels were added as well. Instagram said that the time spent on watching videos on the app increased by over 40 percent.

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