As recently announced by parent company Meta, Instagram now allows its users to share a 30-second clip from Apple Music in a direct message on the platform. Users are able to hear a preview of a song directly from the chat window, as well as pause and replay the clip.
Users can also tap through the 30-second clip to access Apple Music, although they need to have a subscription to the streaming service in order to use it properly. Instagram has also tightened its connections with Spotify and Amazon Music, allowing users of those apps to utilize the same features.
It was announced at the end of 2021 that Instagram planned to find new ways for people to connect with their friends online, and the image-oriented social network has subsequently added lots of new features to its messaging service.
It means that users can now send messages quietly by adding “@silent”, which means the given message will be sent without a notification – probably a polite thing to do if the recipient is busy or it’s late at night. Users can also keep the theme of their conversation lo-fi and create polls within group chats.
As if all the above wasn’t enough, there are a few further tweaks to note on Instagram: a new ability to reply to a message while you are browsing your feed, the option to quickly send posts to friends by tapping and holding the share button, and visibility of who’s online at the top of your inbox.
Meta has said that the new features “are available in select countries, with plans to expand globally.” Anecdotally, we know that some users in the United States have long already enjoyed access to some of these functions, such as the ability to check who’s online.
Apple Music is available for $9.99 per month, or $4.99 per month for students. Users can also include it as part of every tier of Apple One, the Cupertino company’s broader services subscription bundle.
