Instagram brings the Shopping feature to Stories and Explore

Instagram is made it even easier for its users to purchase the stuff they see brands post in Stories. The popular photo-sharing platform tested the Shopping feature for Stories. Currently, the feature is available to businesses based in 46 countries. There's also a new Shopping channel prominently featured in Explore.

Brands will be able to insert shopping links in their Stories, so users can view the price of the items featured in the post. Instagram says Shopping in Stories lets brands "tell an even deeper story about what's behind their products."

Shopping in Explore shows posts about products from accounts the users follow and accounts Instagram picks for you. The feature is going live in the US and will be available in more countries over the next few weeks.

Instagram is also testing a new feature that will allow users to tag their friends in a video. Unlike with photos, where you see an overlay on the image with the links to the tagged person's account, the new feature will take you to a new page where all the tagged users will be listed.

Currently, the feature is under test, so we might get a new functionality when the feature actually arrives on the app. Only a select few users have received the new feature, Instagram told TechCrunch. Also, the tags are only appearing on the app and not on the desktop version.

Instagram is also testing a feature that was actually a part of Facebook when it was launched. The feature is basically grouping students by the school. According to CNBC, the platform is currently testing this new College Community Feature. It will also help students find other students on class-based lists.

This could be a handy feature helping students interact and find friends on Instagram as they move to colleges. College-aged students are the biggest demographic for the platform, so the new feature makes a lot of sense for its business.