Facebook Includes Pinch To Zoom Feature In Instagram App

Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) recently added the much-in-demand “pinch to zoom” feature to its Instagram app. This is yet another move by the company to compete with Snapchat, which has been gaining popularity of late.

After the latest update, Instagram users will be able to zoom on pictures and videos in their main feed or even on other’s profiles. The feature will also work for their explore tab. However, as of now, the update has been made available only for iOS users while the one for Android is in the pipeline and is likely to be rolled out in a few weeks time.

The feature, albeit a small change, marks a step forward. In fact, in the recent past, the company has made a number of seemingly small changes, which do make a lot of difference to user engagement, thereby leading to more monetization opportunities.

Earlier the company rolled out ‘Instagram Stories’ to make photo sharing more engaging than ever. The ‘pinch to zoom’ feature will add value to Instagram Stories.

It appears that Facebook is taking all possible steps to improve its user experience for Instagram. Earlier this year, the company had revamped its feed to meet users’ preferences and also collaborated with popular dating app, Tinder to attract millennials.

As of Jun 2016, the app had over 500 million monthly users and over 300 million daily users. For a better perspective, other social media platforms like Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) had only about 313 million monthly active users (Jul 2016).

According to an eMarketer report (Feb 2016), nearly 9.5% of Facebook’s global mobile ad sales in 2016 will be attributable to Instagram. In 2017, the share is projected to increase to 14%. Thus, it appears that Facebook will leave no stone unturned to add value to Instagram while raising the bar for the likes of Snapchat and Twitter.

Facebook is currently a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock. A couple of similarly-ranked stocks in the space are LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE:LNKD) and Yirendai Ltd. (NYSE:YRD) .

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