Instagram head Adam Mosseri announcement today that the social network is launching its Text Update Notes feature across Europe and Japan. Notes are short messages of up to 60 characters that include only text and emojis and appear above your profile picture. Prior to this expansion, Notes was already accessible wherever Instagram is available beyond Europe and Japan since the feature’s initial rollout in December.
Users can post notes by navigating to the top of their inbox and then selecting followers they follow or others in their existing “close friends” list. They can then type the note itself, after which it will appear at the top of their friends’ inboxes for 24 hours. If a user responds to a note, the response will come in the form of a DM.
In a published video To his social accounts, Mosseri explained that Europe and Japan weren’t included in Notes’ initial rollout because Instagram needed to make sure the feature complied with local regulations before introducing it to those regions.
When Notes initially launched, Instagram said that during testing, people liked having a way to start conversations in a lightweight way. The goal of the feature is to give users a casual and spontaneous way to express themselves and connect with others.
In December, The New York Times reported that Meta was considering turning Instagram Notes into a full-fledged Twitter rival to capitalize on the Twitter chaos following the Elon Musk acquisition. The report says the company had considered whether Notes should even be its own standalone app or another feed inside Instagram.
