Soon You'll Be Able to Book a Restaurant Reservation on Instagram
Photo: Getty.
You know that feeling when you’re scrolling through Instagram, you see a photo of someone’s gorgeous ombré locks, and you want them on your head immediately? Or that sensation when you come across a mouthwatering hamburger that you want in your stomach ASAP? Well, teleport technology might still be a work in progress, but Instagram is doing the next best thing to help us get there. The app will soon be rolling out a feature where you can book a hair appointment, restaurant reservation, and more via a business’s Instagram profile, Bloomberg reports. While many websites do allow online booking, any new feature that will save us a step or two sounds pretty nice.
In addition to making our lives a lot more easier and one-step, the upcoming feature has definite benefits on the business side of things as well. Namely, it will allow businesses to add customers in a real-life way, rather than through just followers and likes. James Quarles, Instagram’s head of business, said as much about the new feature to Bloomberg: “When someone books an appointment, that’s not a ‘like’ or a ‘follow,’ that’s actual action,” he said. Basically, companies will now be able to measure the success of their social media promotion in a more tangible and profitable way. Quarles explained that 80 percent of Instagram users follow at least one business, and that there are about 8 million businesses who use Instagram. This proposes a challenge to other appointment-booking businesses like Yelp and OpenTable.
This new feature joins a slew of others that Instagram has rolled out recently. They just announced sensitive content screens, an alternative to Instagram’s past policy of removing posts deemed “sensitive.” The app also has plans to introduce a lower-speed version, so users with limited Internet can access the ’gram. And after only several months of Instagram Live existing, the app has finally started letting us download our hilarious live streams to enjoy later.
We have reached out to Instagram for comment.
This story originally appeared on Self.
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