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INSTAGRAM LAUNCHES NEW ‘FOCUS’ FEATURE

If you have ever used Instagram, you will know that it isn’t uncommon for them to add new features to the platform. In the past couple of years, one of its most noticeable new features was ‘Stories’, which allows users to post a selection of photos which disappear after 24 hours.

The photo sharing app, which now has more 800 million monthly active users, is now rolling out a portrait mode called Focus.

Focus, to put it simply, blurs out the background and puts focus on the person or group of people in the photo. This can turn your casual selfie into a professional looking photo at the click of a button.

If you want to use this feature, its pretty easy! Open the camera and you’ll see the ‘Focus’ icon next to ‘Superzoom’, both of which are under the record button.

When you take a selfie using either the front or back facing camera, you will notice the background softly blur when someone enters the shot.

In a blog post, Instagram said; “Now you can instantly take portraits of yourself or friends that you’ll want to share — with the new “Focus” camera format.”

“As soon as there’s someone in the shot, you’ll notice the person stays in focus while the background softly blurs — making sure they stand out in a striking way.”

In addition to the Focus feature, Instagram is also releasing the @mention sticker on iOS. This means that you can tag an account in your Stories, whether it’s your friend, a place or brand.

To do this, you need to take a photo in your Stories camera then open the stickers tray and tap on the @mention sticker. You will then be able to type the name of the want you to tag and place the sticker wherever you like.

At the moment, the Focus feature is available to iPhone Phone SE, 6S, 6S+, 7, 7+, 8, 8+ users, as well as select Android devices. But remember that you will need to update the app to get this feature.

And if you can’t access it yet, don’t worry! Instagram is usually pretty quick at rolling out features so if you don’t have access to the focus mode yet, you probably will very soon.