Instagram is targeting Gen Z with 4 new features, as it looks to younger users to shape its product strategy

• Instagram’s cohead of product Ashley Yuki just announced new Instagram features.
• These will be targeted to Gen-Z users of the platform.
• They will include audio notes and close-friend groups.

As Instagram celebrates its 13th year, it’s rolling out a slew of new tools aimed at young users.

Instagram will be launching four new features aimed at the platform’s Gen-Z users, VP and cohead of product Ashley Yuki told attendees at the platform’s “Instagram University” event on October 6 in New York City.

“We really always are looking to the youngest generation for what’s new and how to evolve,” Yuki said. “And that really shapes our product strategy.”

The IGU event, which the platform hosts several times a year, gathered emerging creators, social-media managers, and journalists at Meta’s Hudson Yards headquarters to learn about what Instagram has to offer.

The platform is trying to appeal to the generation of users between the ages of 16 and 25, who increasingly seem to be gravitating toward TikTok.

The new features arose from the feedback of Gen-Z users, who want more authentic and less polished content on the platform, Yuki said.

These will include:

• Multiple close-friend groups. Instagram gets that sometimes, people “don’t want to share everything with everyone,” Yuki said, which is why it is now testing out a way for people to share stories with different close-friend groups. Users can name these groups, too. At the IGU event, this announcement was well received by some happy (or relieved) creators and users in the crowd. “Judging by the reaction, I think it’s going to go well,” Meta VP of global marketing Eshan Ponnadurai said during the presentation.

• Birthday shout-outs. “One thing that we’ve seen from Gen Z — all of you, really — is that you all like to shout each other out and hype each other up,” Yuki said. This new tool will make it easier to share content in celebration of a user’s birthday, as well as reminders that it’s someone’s birthday.

• Audio snippets for the Notes feature. The notes feature, which lets users share a quick status update on the DM page of Instagram, will begin testing voice recordings that users can leave as their status. In June, Instagram shipped out a music tool for the feature, which has been a hit among Gen-Z users, Yuki said.

• Users will also be able to share a “selfie video” via Notes. If you don’t to want to post a quick update to your stories, there’s a new place to do that. Yuki gave the example of if someone was hanging out with their friends, they could record and share a short 15-second voice memo for friends to see, accompanied by a selfie video.

In addition to these four features, Instagram will also begin iterating on new ways for creators and young users to express themselves through music on the app, Yuki said.

“The through line is we want to be a place that anyone can find their own creativity, anyone can connect with their friends through that creativity, and just share what’s on your mind in a way that feels most comfortable for you,” Yuki said.