Instagram’s text update Notes feature is expanding to Europe and Japan

Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced today that the social network is launching its text update Notes feature across Europe and Japan. Notes are short posts of up to 60 characters that include just text and emojis, and appear above your profile photo. Prior to this expansion, Notes was already accessible everywhere Instagram is available beyond Europe and Japan since the feature’s initial rollout in December.

Users can post Notes by navigating to the top of their inbox, then selecting the followers they follow back or others from their existing “Close Friends” list. They can then type out the note itself, after which it will appear at the top of friends’ inboxes for 24 hours. If a user responds to a Note, the reply will arrive as a DM.

In a video posted to his social accounts, Mosseri explained that Europe and Japan weren’t included in the initial rollout of Notes because Instagram needed to ensure that the feature complied with local regulations before bringing it to these regions. Instagram says it will take a few days for the feature to reach all users in the two new regions.

At the time of the initial launch of Notes, Instagram said that during testing it found people appreciated having a way to start conversations in a lightweight way. The goal of the feature is to give users a casual and spontaneous way to express themselves and connect with others.

In December, the New York Times reported that Meta was considering turning Instagram Notes into a more fully fledged Twitter rival to capitalize on the chaos at Twitter following Elon Musk’s acquisition. The report said the company had been weighing whether Notes should even be its own stand-alone app or another feed inside Instagram.