Instagram announced this week, in a post on its official account, a new content scheduling feature for all professional accounts. 

This new feature allows brands and content creators to schedule their posts directly in the app up to 75 days in advance, freeing professionals from dependence on third-party applications or the Creator Studio for this purpose.

To use the new feature, users will need to access “advanced settings” when creating a new post, activating the “schedule this post” option, and selecting the time and date they want it to be published on. Scheduled posts can be seen in the “scheduled content” section accessible from the menu. The tool will also allow you to reschedule the content, if necessary. 

Instagram did not mention whether personal accounts will also have access to the in-app scheduling tool. 

Honestly, I’m curious to see if Instagram will eventually open scheduling up to personal accounts. It’d save a lot of “post now, delete later” moments for people like me who second-guess captions. Maybe they’re just testing the waters with pro accounts for now, to avoid a wave of scheduled spam or overly polished content, but that’s just me guessing.

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The update that comes to add (a lot!) to marketing strategies within Instagram 

As a marketer, I admit that this was one of the most anticipated features for me on Instagram. Several other platforms, such as Youtube and TikTok, already provide the option of scheduling posts in their application, but Meta still lacks in this department (especially on Instagram).

The new feature is a huge facilitator for brands and content creators, as it eliminates the need to use another tool to schedule posts, thus allowing the process to be simpler and with a smoother experience. 

It’s funny, though—some folks were actually worrying out loud that this would kill the “authenticity” of Instagram. I mean, sure, scheduled posts can feel less in-the-moment, but honestly, who’s really posting everything in real time anymore? Between time zones and the fact that trends come and go in what feels like minutes, most successful creators have been batch-producing content for years. At least now, it’s not such a clunky process for them.

And there’s more on the “Instagram news” department… 

In addition to launching this new scheduling tool, Instagram also announced, through the same post, the launch of new “Achievements” to encourage Reel creations on the platform. 

Creators will be able to unlock achievements for specific actions, such as collaborating with another creator on a reel, engaging with the community by making reels more interactive, running more than one reel a week, and/or using trending audio and effects. Thus, content creators will be notified by the platform when they are able to unlock an achievement after publishing some successful reels. 

This is one of the strategies that Instagram is starting to use in order to compete with more “strength” against TikTok.