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Instagram Offers Feature to Save Photos as Drafts

Instagram has rolled out a drafts feature to allow users save their pictures as drafts. Using the new feature, users would be able to save an edited photo at any point throughout the uploading process.

The new “Save Drafts” feature is easy to use. After you add an effect, caption, filter, or location to a photo, just click the back arrow at the top left of the screen. This makes the “Save Draft” or “Discard” screen appear. Now, you can save your photo as draft and can access it anytime under the “Drafts” tab in “Library” by tapping the camera button located at the bottom center. You draft will remain in your Instagram photo library until it is published by you.

You also need to edit a photo before you save it as a draft. That means you can’t save large quantities of raw, unedited photos.

In a tweet, Instagram said that new feature is aimed at people “trying to create a post that’s just right.” It will also help social media managers who want to queue up posts.

The Drafts tool underwent beta testing earlier this month, and now it is available for all users. It being a server-side update means users don’t have to update the app for the new feature to appear.

The feature was first spotted in July this year when a few users noticed a “Save Draft” option appearing in their app. In August, the tool was rolled out more broadly, but only on experimental basis. Since then, Instagram had been running A/B tests to see the response of the users. However, the feature is now going live for all.

The Drafts feature is the latest from Instagram in a line of add-ons introduced in recent months, including the Snapchat-like Stories section and a pinch-to-zoom feature.

The feature will roll out to all users on Instagram’s iOS and Android applications.

Instagram, the photo and video sharing service owned by Facebook, came into existence in 2010. In 2012, Facebook bought it for about $750 million. At that time, the app had about 22 million monthly active users. Since then, the app has grown exponentially, due to ease of sharing images. In the past two years, Instagram’s user base has more than doubled. It reached 400 million monthly active users in September 2015, and since then it had added another 100 million monthly active users by June 2016, which were added at a faster rate compared to the previous 100 million users.

Facebook Messenger currently has over 1 billion users, whereas WhatsApp is being used by over 900 million people.

In June 2016, Instagram hit a new milestone in its history by crossing the 500 million user mark. Instagram also revealed that over 80% of its users were based outside the U.S.