Instagram update brings ‘emoji shortcuts’ bar for faster commenting

Instagram has been fairly active for quite some time now and has been releasing new updates and features for its platform. The image sharing platform by Facebook had recently introduced a 'Parental Guides' feature which allowed the users to keep a tab on their child's online security. Now, the company has introduced yet another new feature for the masses. Instagram has now added an emoji shortcuts bar for its mobile app.

Instagram took it to Twitter to announce the new feature. The company's official tweet mentions that the platform has now added personalized emoji shortcuts bar in the comment section of the feed. Users can locate the emoji shortcuts bar just above the comment text box. With the help of this new feature, users will now have access to 8 of their most frequently used emojis. This will further allow the users to express their emotions in just a few taps.

Now, all a user will need to do is simply select the comments icon which can be located under a post in their feed. From here, users need to select the emoji which they want to enter in a text and hit on send. This is all they need to do in order to use the new feature. Also, when a user taps on the emoji it will not post the emoji directly as a comment, rather, it will add the emoji in the comment box from where they can post the comment along with the emoji.

Instagram had been testing this particular feature for quite sometime before releasing it for the masses. The emoji shortcuts bar feature is currently available in the feed section of the platform as of now and it is unavailable for the Stories as it already has the emoji reactions.

To recall, Instagram has recently added six new Superzoom effects to spice up its Stories section. The Superzoom feature had brought along 10 different effects along with it. Some of the new effects are Paparazzi Fire, Hearts, Surprise effect, and others.