It's been a busy month for the designers over at Instagram. Even in spite of all the craziness occurring worldwide, they have actually provided yet again with a handful of Instagram updates that advertisers, marketers, and developers can eagerly anticipate.

So let's dive in and see all the new features in-depth and discuss what they suggest for you.

This month, we're getting a very first take a look at monetizing IGTV advertisements, generating income from lives, a new test for shopping tags, an ongoing push to the Messenger and Direct integration, and some info about how Instagram will resolve racial inequality on the platform.

Instagram understands that influencers (aka "developers") on the platform bring a huge amount of weight and are, in some ways, pretty main to the platform itself.

Users and brand names enjoy developers, and they can really drive more users over to IGTV, which they're frantically intending to do.

Because of this, Instagram is using new ways for creators to earn money on the platform, particularly given the difficult and unsure financial times.

The last thing they desire is to have their entire audience (influencers and all their audiences) to go gathering to TikTok instead.

One of the brand-new features they're using developers is "badges," which users can buy throughout a creator's IGTV live. These badges will appear beside the user's name throughout the whole live.

They'll likewise get extra functions, like having their comments stand apart (and therefore making them more likely to catch the eye of the developer) and they'll get to the developer's list of badge holders.

Testing for badges begins next month, and little beta-testing will take place prior to expanding to the US, Brazil, UK, Australia, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Spain, and Mexico in "the coming months."

To be considered for early access, you can register for the beta test here.

Huge news! Ads are now concerning IGTV. Short video ads will appear when users click to enjoy somebody's IGTV videos from the video's sneak peek in their Instagram feed.

These ads will be mobile-friendly, using a vertical format and an optimal run time of fifteen seconds.

Creators who are using IGTV and working to send traffic that way can directly gain from this, due to the fact that when users click ontheir IGTV video preview and see an advertisement, the developer gets a share in the marketing revenue.

Because IGTV advertisements are brand name new (and provide monetization for Instagram in addition to their creators), they'll be evaluating different ad "experiences" throughout the year to see what works best.

This might consist of the ability to skip an advertisement after a specific number of seconds.

The goal is to find a service that works well so that developers do not lose views, advertisers actually get successful results, and users more than happy.

Personally, we've just been waiting on IGTV ads to present so Instagram and Facebook can have more mobile positionings (and therefore make more money).

This isn't a substantial surprise, and given that in-stream video advertisements work well for developers on Facebook now, this is a natural extension of that feature.

TikTok has been the talk of the town for a while with GenZ and Millennials, and now everyone is paying close attention.

The app has incredibly high use and engagement, it's also been discovered that there are huge security risks associated with the app, including the fact that it might possibly be spying on users and be vulnerable to hackers.

Thankfully, Instagram is all set to save the day ... sort of.

They've been dealing with a TikTok copycat feature for a couple of months now, which is called "Reels," and it looks like it will be presenting soon.

This function will permit users to develop looping video clips lasting 15-seconds long. The video clips will be set to music, just like what you commonly saw in TikTok's start.

Reels Navigate To These Guys will appear in an unique area on user profiles, making the function more unique than a basic new Story lens and therefore more interactive. They'll also have their own separate section in the Explore tab.

Instagram did this so that they could have a standalone feature within the app, preventing the requirement for a real standalone app. This was likely done to increase engagement within the app, making the tool more appealing to Over Here users overall.

Businesses will have the ability to utilize this feature, too, as it presents to them. Consider new ways you can create Reels content that your users will love; Gen Z and Millennial users, in particular, will likely be responsive to this.

Even while the rest of the world feels a little like it's been completely closed down for the last couple of months, social media is one thing that never quite stops moving.

The platforms understand this, knowing all too well that in order to keep users pleased and engaged (and rivals at bay) that they need to step up their video game and keep the brand-new functions coming.

Personally, we're truly thrilled about all five of the new changes that Instagram has shared with us this month, and we hope you are, too!

Make sure you tune in next month to see what's new then.

What do you think? Which of these new features are you most delighted about? What do you want to see next? Share your ideas and questions in the comments below!