After launching on Facebook in 2015, Meta-owned photo sharing app Instagram has launched AMBER Alerts on this platform for the first time. With the availability of the AMBER ALERTS, people can see and share notices of missing children in their area.
Rolled out on June 1 in the US, the new feature will be available in 25 countries in the coming weeks. In addition to the US, AMBER Alerts on Instagram will be available in the next couple of weeks in 25 countries: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Ecuador, Greece, Guatemala, Ireland, Jamaica, Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, South Africa, Taiwan, Ukraine, the UK, and the United Arab Emirates.
Instagram is also working to expand and bring AMBER Alerts to more countries. According to the Instagram, AMBER Alerts are an important way they can support the communities in keeping children safe.
Developed in partnership with organizations like the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the US, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, the National Crime Agency in the UK, the Attorney General’s Office in Mexico, the Australian Federal Police and more, AMBER Alerts have been successful in helping authorities find and quickly locate missing children since its launch on Facebook.
Users in the designated search area will get the alert on their Instagram feed if an AMBER Alert is activated by law enforcement. This increases the chances of finding a missing child increase as more people are on the lookout.
Photo, description, location of the abduction and any other available information of the missing child can be provided through AMBER ALERTS. Instagram users can share the information with friends to further spread the word and intensify the search operation.
AMBER Alerts are rare and specific to the search area. A variety of signals, including the city users list on their profile, their IP address and location services (if you have it turned on) are used in order to know who to show these alerts to.
“Instagram is a platform based on the power of photos, making it a perfect fit for the AMBER Alert program,” said Michelle DeLaune, President and CEO at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. “We know that photos are a critical tool in the search for missing children and by expanding the reach to the Instagram audience, we’ll be able to share photos of missing children with so many more people.”
Previous updates
Last month, Instagram brought Visual Refresh new energy and purpose to colors, typeface, logo and other brand elements with a refreshed visual identity. According to the Instagram, the new system is designed to embrace continued evolution to help the photo-sharing app create more immersive and inclusive experiences for the community.
Instagram has been adding various features to improve users’ experience. To make Instagram not only available but also accessible to everyone, the Meta-owned platform made auto-generated captions the default for creators. Supported globally on Android and iOS in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Arabic, Vietnamese, Italian, German, Turkish, Russian, Thai, Tagalog, Urdu, Malay, Hindi, Indonesian and Japanese, Instagram announced to provide updates about the availability of the auto-generated captions for Instagram Video. The feature was made available in March 2022.
This feature creates captions automatically and remain on unless manually turned off while uploading a video. When viewing a video, you can tap the three dots (…) in the upper right corner and select “Manage captions” to toggle captions on and off.
Captions sticker on Stories and Captions sticker on Reels were other features introduced by the Instagram to make the platform more accessible. Captions sticker on Stories was announced in May 2021, while Captions Sticker for Reels was added in July 2021.
How to use Captions sticker on Stories
Users need to go to the sticker tray, select Captions and then re-watch your video to view the auto-generated text when creating a video on Stories. You can edit the text by tapping it if you want to change something. Captions sticker on Reels works in the similar fashion. This too automatically convert audio to text.
Live Rooms was also added by the Instagram in March 2021. Live Rooms give creators the option of going live with up to 3 additional people. Since its release, creators have used Live Rooms to include American Sign Language interpreters in public meetings like press briefings and constituent Q&As.
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