Instagram has started to adapt itself to the way creators were using the platform during the Covid-19 pandemic. Users have turned to live stream on Instagram. Instagram recently said that they are increasing the time limit for live streams from 1 hour to 4 hours for all the users around the world.
This is meant to help those who has to pivot to virtual events including yoga and fitness instructors, teachers, musicians, artists, activists and others. During the government lockdown heights at US, Instagram Live was a place to gather as DJ’s hosted live sets, artists played their music for fans, celebs hosted live talk shows, workout enthusiasts joined live classes and others. Live usage increased to around 70% among pre-coronavirus numbers in US as people connected online.
Instagram live creators always wanted to extend the sessions beyond 60 minute time limit without any sort of interference.
The change has put Instagram on par with time limits offered by Facebook for live stream on mobile devices which is around four hours.
The extended time limit is opening to all customers worldwide, Instagram said that the creator’s account needs to be “good standing” to take the advantage. This means that the account cannot have a history of intellectual property or policy violations.
Instagram will also be updating the “Live Now” section of IGTV and in the end of live stream to help show users to more content.
Instagram has pre-announced a feature which is yet to arrive.
Instagram will soon add an option which would allow creators to archive the live streams up to 30 days.
Normally users were able to archive the Feed posts or Stories to a private archive but the one way to save a live stream was to publish the same on IGTV after the stream by a feature that was introduced in the month of May.
Instagram said that the option to archive live broadcasts would mirror the existing archive experience for Stories and Feed Posts.
The only difference is that the archive live videos would get permanently deleted after 30 days.
Until that, creator has an option to return to the video or save or download it. This will also allow the creator to publish the video on other social platforms like Facebook or YouTube and trim key parts for short-form video platforms like TikTok. The Archive feature means if the Live stream of a creator crashes or if the creator forgot to download it, it can be downloaded later.
There has also been news of another Instagram update which made a way for creators to monetize the live streams.
Instagram started rolling out badges on Instagram Live to the initial group of around 50,000 creators who would test the feature by selling badges at a rate of $0.99, $1.99 or $4.99. The badges help the comments of the fans stand out in busy streams and allow fans to support a favourite creator and places the name of the fan in the creator’s list of badge holders.