Instagram adds new lock screen widget to speed up story posting on iPhone

Social media platform Instagram recently added a new feature to its iOS app that lets you click and post Stories faster than ever before. The app comes with a new lock screen widget that directly opens the Story camera, allowing users to click a photo or shoot a video and post it as a Story. Instagram is reportedly working on multiple new features. Previous reports highlighted that the company is introducing a Friend Map feature, which could be similar to Snap Map’s functionality.

New widgets were added without much fuss. There was no official announcement from the company or a post from Instagram head Adam Mosseri. Over the weekend, many users posted about this feature online. Gadgets 360 also saw new lock screen widgets and their features.

This widget, called Story Camera, occupies a 1×1 grid on the lock screen. The widget icon is simply a plus icon inside a circle. The description says “Open the Instagram Story camera directly from your lock screen,” and that’s exactly what it does. Once a user has added a widget, they can simply click on it to go to the story’s camera interface. There, you can click on an image, instantly shoot and post a video, or add an image from your gallery.

One drawback of this widget is that it doesn’t allow users to use the iPhone’s native camera app, which can capture high-quality images. However, it’s a good option for people who don’t care about image quality and want to post their stories quickly. Story Camera also allows users to take advantage of many in-app filters. The feature was rolled out last week and will be available to all users worldwide within the next few days. The user needs his iOS 16 or newer as lock screen widgets are not present in older versions of the OS.

Recently, a tipster claimed that Instagram is working on a feature that will allow users to see where their friends were last active on a map. The feature, known as Friend Map, appears to open a world map that shows the user’s friends (if they have shared their location data). Users can also add notes and read notes left by other users.