Instagram says Notes is a fun way to get recommendations or start convos with your closest pals
(Picture: Shutterstock/Dean Drobot)Ever wanted to ask your Instagram friends something in private without sharing your post with all your followers? Now you can with Instagram Notes.
The feature introduced late last year lets you share short disappearing text messages with close pals and people you follow back. Once shared, your “note” will appear atop your chosen friends’ inboxes for 24 hours, giving recipients the option to kickstart a chat by responding directly to you.
Notes could be a great way to quickly share what you’re doing with your closest mates, get recommendations on what to watch on Netflix, decide where to go for a dinner meetup, or just spark a fun convo with your nearest and dearest.
Read on to find out how to share Instagram Notes with your friends.
What are Instagram Notes?
Instagram introduced Notes on iOS and Android last December as part of a major update that included Candid Stories, the app’s take on BeReal-style timed daily posts. The feature is not available on the web. The new feature was originally not available in Europe nor Japan but it has gone live in these territories over recent days.
Notes are essentially short posts of up to 60 characters including text and emojis that appear at the top of your inbox. Replies to notes will initiate a one-to-one chat between the sender and the recipient that no one else can see.
You can only create one note at a time, though there’s nothing stopping you from deleting and sharing new notes as often as you like. Just be mindful not to annoy your mates with a barrage of posts.
How to share an Instagram Note
To create and share a Note, go to the top of your Instagram inbox by tapping the paper airplane icon at the top right of your home page. Now, select your profile pic at the top of your inbox and then type your note on the next page. But don’t hit share straight away unless you want to send the note to everyone you follow back.
Instagram does this by default but you can also select the “close friends” option to share with a select group of people. If you haven’t set this up already you can do so the first time you choose it.
You can reply to an Instagram Note with a direct message by selecting it at the top of your chats list in your inbox, tapping send message and entering your reply and tapping send. Others won’t be able to see who has viewed your note or reply to it.
If you want to remove a note before the 24-hour time period runs out you can delete it by tapping on the note and selecting “delete note”.
How to mute Instagram Notes
If you get sick of multiple notes clogging up your inbox, you can in effect hide notes from specific people by muting them. The best thing is that they will never know that you silenced them, so you can avoid any awkward moments.
Just tap and hold the note from the person whose notes you want to mute, then tap “mute notes”, then confirm your choice.
