Instagram announced Monday that it’s finally adding the ability for users to listen to previews of songs that they’ve shared from Spotify to Stories.
While Instagram has long allowed users to share Spotify songs to their Stories, it would do so without sound, and simply provide a link to the song on the streaming platform. Now, when a user posts a song to their Story, viewers will be able to listen to a preview of the song right within Instagram.
The small, yet notable change makes it easier to share and discover music on the platform without having to leave the app.
The move comes a few weeks after the social network rolled out a similar capability for Instagram Notes. Users can now stream songs from Spotify directly to their Instagram Notes, letting their followers see and check out what kind of music they’re into in real time.
The new capabilities could help position Instagram as a hub for music discovery and, in turn, encourage people to spend more time on the app. Building out music features could also make Instagram more competitive with TikTok, which is already dominating the space and influencing music charts globally.
Instagram also announced Monday it’s rolling out new fonts this year for Stories and Reels. To start, the platform is introducing a limited-time font inspired by singer and songwriter Rosalía’s handwriting.
Users can unlock secret symbols hand-drawn by Rosalía when typing in characters such as ” :-) “, ***,” and “<3,” Instagram says.
