After years of solely focusing on its mobile product,
Instagram is at long last thinking about letting users post from their
computers. A number of Twitter users noticed that the test feature had gone
live Thursday, and Instagram confirmed it.
“We know that many people access Instagram from their
computer,” an Instagram spokesperson said. “To improve that experience, we’re
now testing the ability to create a Feed post on Instagram with their desktop
browser.”
Why now? Apparently over the course of the pandemic, the
company saw a rise in people cruising Instagram from their computers rather
than their phones.
To see if the test is live for you, head to Instagram in
your browser and look for a new “plus” icon in the icon tray on the top right.
The test isn’t available to everyone and it only allows users to create posts
for the main feed.
The new test feature is the company’s most recent sign of
life for its desktop product: Instagram added the ability to view Stories on
the web in 2017 and added direct messaging to desktop late last year.
“… We haven’t found any evidence that the Instagram desktop
web experience cannibalizes engagement from the native apps,” a data scientist
with Instagram observed with the launch of web messaging.
“In fact, it’s quite the opposite — users who use both
interfaces spend more time on each interface, compared to users who use each
interface exclusively.”