Instagram Introduce Bookmarks so You'll Never Lose a Post Again

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For many, the screenshotting tool has become the equivalent of bookmarking on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. It's not particularly slick, but it's the best you've got if you're especially desperate to save a post before it gets lost in the ether. Instagram has always been about the here and now, and Snapchat is just ephemeral by nature, but sometimes, either for the sake of reference or relevance, you need to store something.

It's an issue that has never really been directly addressed, but now Instagram have take steps to make life a bit easier. With the latest update, you can bookmark posts the same way you can on Facebook, enabling you to view them any time in a separate tab.

There are many reason why you might want to save an Instagram post - ideas for cooking, researching how to decorate your house, stalking an ex, the list goes on, but previously you'd have to scroll through the 'liked posts' tab, and the more people you follow, the more difficult it is to track down your own likes.

Of course, the key difference is that everyone else can see your likes, whereas bookmarks are completely private. This does mean that anyone who might be minded to stalk and/or obsess over people on their Instagram feed are going to have a far easier time doing so, but on the surface level, if you're researching a gift to get someone, or anything else you might be a bit more coy about, this will help.

Here's the thing, though, remember how Instagram introduced a feature which would notify users if and when somebody else took a screenshot of a direct message? Well bookmarking a post doesn't notify anyone. You can interpret that as less protective, or less anxiety inducing, but in either case, you have to wonder what Facebook are really trying to turn Instagram into, because at the moment there are a lot of contrasting factors.

There's one last thing to bear in mind: if you've bookmarked a post and the user deletes it, it's gone for good, so screenshotting is still the best way to approach it.