Instagram's new group chats sticker for Stories lets your followers request to join

Instagram is making it easier to get in touch with your circle of friends.

The social networking app announced on Tuesday that it's adding a new chat sticker for Instagram Stories that lets your followers "request" to join a group chat from your Story. Unveiled in a video posted to Twitter, the new chat sticker joins Instagram's line up of other popular photo tools including polls, question boxes and locations.

In the promotional video, Instagram shows the chat sticker option being used for things like planning parties and creating study groups. You can use Instagram's Close Friends feature to create restrictions on who can see Stories that show the chat sticker.

How it works

The new add-on, which is being rolled out currently, lives alongside the app's other Story customization options. By selecting it, you can add a topic to your post that you'd like to discuss with your friends.

Followers who see the call to action, can tap "join chat." From there, you'll decide if you want to allow them to be a part of the group conversation or not. If you accept, they'll be launched into a group chat room, similar the type you can create by going to your inbox and selecting the followers you'd like to loop together in a chat.

Instagram gives you the option to end the group chat at any time.

The social networking app has introduced several new features over the past few weeks, including IGTV support for landscape videos, a navigation bar with results tailored to your interests, and in-app purchases so shoppers can buy merchandise from brands without leaving the app.

(c)2019 U.S. Today
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.