Instagram adds in 'Chat' sticker to Stories for letting your followers join a group chat

Instagram is always updating the app with new features to keep users engaged to the platform. To that end, the company has added a new sticker to the Stories feature which will let you invite your friends to a group chat directly from your post.[caption id="attachment_4605821" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Representational image. Reuters[/caption]This new sticker is called Chat and when you add it to your Story it will become 'Join Chat' wherein your follower can request you to add them to a private chat. Instagram is promoting the Chat sticker as a solution for people who want to have a big group conversation or want to make plans with others.[caption id="attachment_6922471" align="alignnone" width="751"] Instagram's Chat feature.[/caption]The original poster can then choose who they want to include in the new chat, which will take place in their direct messages inbox. The chat can be ended at any time as well, giving the poster power to add and remove any person from the chat.More recently the Facebook-owned company in a blog post formally stated that it will start placing ads on the Explore section of the app in the coming weeks. Once users tap on a photo or video on Explore, they will see ads in between posts as they scroll, just like on the regular feed.Instagram clarified that the ads on the sticker page will only show ads only once a user starts scrolling, instead of placing the ads slapdash on the grid-style tiles of the Explore page.