Instagram Rolls Out New Audience Option For Sharing Feed Posts and Reels

Lia Haberman

Instagram has introduced a new audience option for users in the UK, enabling them to share their Feed Posts and Reels with either everyone or exclusively with individuals on their Close Friends list. Similar to the Close Friends for Stories, those included in the list will see a label when viewing these posts. Additionally, when Close Friends like, comment, or share a post, their usernames and interaction details will be visible to other members of the list.

Why it Matters: Over the past few years, there has been a noticeable shift in people's preference to share content within smaller, close-knit groups. This trend has been particularly pronounced on Instagram, as Adam Mosseri revealed that a majority of teen users are spending more time engaging with select people through DMs and Stories than the Feed.

The introduction of the Close Friends option for Feed Posts and Reels aligns perfectly with this trend, enabling users to continue selective sharing. This, in turn, may encourage users to share more content on their Feed rather than restricting it solely to Stories or DM.

Instagram could further enhance this feature by allowing users to create multiple Close Friends Lists, providing greater flexibility to share specific content with distinct groups of individuals. For instance, I often share a combination of travel and hiking content, alongside creator economy-related content on Instagram. Having the ability to create separate Close Friends lists would enable me to share the most relevant content with each audience.

For creators facing similar dilemmas, some of them resort to creating separate accounts. However, this necessitates starting from scratch in building up the new account and demands more time and effort to manage multiple accounts, as opposed to a single, consolidated profile with customized sharing.