You Can Try These Three New Instagram Features Right Now

This week, Instagram rolled out three new features for posts, reels, and stories. If you're an avid poster, you may have already noticed these features, but for the rest of us lurkers, there are some fun new options to try out.

First up, Instagram now lets you add text and stickers to photos and carousels. If you're used to adding these items to reels and stories, you'll be right at home here: When crafting a new post, choose an image to post, then tap the text button to add text to the image. You can choose the text's font, color, background, alignment, size, and placement, just as you do on a story. Tap Done to lock in your text.

To add a sticker, tap the gallery, then choose a photo to overlay on top of your post. Place the sticker wherever you want, and pinch and pull to make it larger or smaller. You can tap the newly-created sticker to change its shape into a circle, heart, star, or square. You can even adjust which layer of the image this sticker rests in (i.e. above or below other elements on the post). Just long-press the sticker, then drag your finger up or down to choose the sticker's new layer.

Next up, Instagram is adding new fonts, animations, and effects to text in reels and stories. To try them, choose an image or video to add to your story or reel, then tap the text button. You can scroll through all the font options (I see 14, but it's not evident which ones are new), then tap the animations button to cycle through the various animations. There are three here: Typewriter, which types out your text; Pop, which briefly blows up your text; and Jump, which has your text jump into frame. You can also hit the effects button to stack an effect on top of these choices. Right now, I'm seeing Sparkle, which adds stars to your text; and Neon, which adds a glow effect.

Finally, Instagram is rolling out larger carousels. For the longest time, you've only been able to add 10 photos to one post. There's a lot of editing that goes into that decision, with plenty of great photos ending up on the cutting room floor. Now, Instagram will let you add up to 20 photos per carousel. Will that be too much? Will people add three, five, or 10 photos too many per post? If so, oh well, just keep scrolling.

These new features follow Instagram's last big feature update: Music on Profile, a new option that lets you add a song to your Instagram profile. It's reminiscent of music profiles on Myspace, which, you might be surprised to learn, actually still exists.