Instagram now lets you bookmark photos and videos

Instagram has released a bookmarking feature that makes it easier for you to save that interesting photo or video someone posted. This feature may find fans among the service’s more than 500 million monthly active users, proving helpful for those who want to reference a post later on but can’t always remember the username or how to find it.

In the media-sharing app’s latest release, you’ll see a bookmark icon located underneath each post in your feed. Tap it and the post is saved in a private tab on your profile. No one else will be able to see what images or videos you save.

The release of a bookmarking feature makes particular sense given Instagram’s algorithm for its News Feed. Announced in June, the algorithm present posts from people you follow in a programmatic way instead of in reverse-chronological order. As a result, that post you see from your friend may not be there the next time you pop open Instagram, so the burden has been on you to hunt it down.

The ability to save Instagram posts follows in the footsteps of bookmarking features on other services, such as Pinterest, and it’s not hard to imagine a purchasing aspect coming in the future, as well. Advertisers who have an amusing or creative sponsored post could also benefit, as users might be inclined to save the post for for later and possibly even share it with others.

This is just the latest update for Instagram, which is working to let users to do more around posts. It has enabled view counts for videos, letting you share them with others using a direct message-like approach. You can also engage with comments by liking them, and there’s even a pinch-to-zoom option.

As mentioned earlier, the bookmarking feature is available now as part of Instagram version 10.2 for iOS and Android.