Instagram has announced that it’s shelving its “Guides” feature next month, which could be a consideration for your IG strategy.
As you can see in this screenshot, shared by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, Instagram Guides are going away as of December 15th, with all existing Guides on profiles to be converted to Collections.
Instagram first launched Guides back in 2020, as a means to highlight themed content and showcase more in-depth material in a more engaging, interactive way.
Guides provided an alternative display format, enabling creators and brands to share explainers and image collections, accompanied by short text descriptions. Guides are also able to be shared via Stories, which provides another way to drive engagement.
But evidently, they haven’t proven popular, and Instagram’s decided to end support for the option, with Collections providing a lesser replacement.
It did seem to have potential, but I assume that the usage stats dictate the outcome here, and people are simply not showing much interest in more expanded brochure-type content, more akin to Pinterest, on IG.
So if you have any Guides on your profile, it’s time to download them, or update them into Collections format.