One of the world’s most popular social media apps, Instagram, has launched a slew of exciting new features with its latest updates.

To start off, here are a few statistics about Instagram: there are one billion plus Instagram accounts that are active every month worldwide, over 80 percent of these accounts follow a business on the app and over 500 million accounts use Instagram stories every day. This means that if Instagram were a country, it would be the third most populated country in the world, right behind China and India. That’s power right there, folks.

Over the course of the last few updates, the app’s developers have added some exciting new features that help businesses grow, battle online bullying and reduce the extent of social media stalking.

Create Mode

Instagram’s Create Mode makes the app even more omni-purpose than it already is. You can now share your old content and make it available to a newer audience. That’s not all – there’s now a countdown timer, a quiz sticker that lets you question your followers and a poll tab.

Following tab, no more

Instagram has removed its Following tab which was infamous for letting users stalk people instead of being an aid for new account discovery as was intended by the developers. While the following tab was the equivalent of the human tailbone in the sense that it was forgotten and hence, had become redundant, many were using it to keep tabs on people’s private lives by seeing who they were liking or following on Instagram.

Gifs galore

Now, the app also has an updated camera with the ability to add GIFs, polls and timers as stand-alone stories, something that wasn’t available before. This means that you can now use your GIF as a background to a Story.

Dark Mode

Instagram has also launched a cool new ‘dark mode’ for iOS13 and Android 10 users. Availing this turns the app’s interface dark instead of the earlier white. It’s cool, edgy and very tumblr-esque.

Stop Phishing attacks

You may have noticed a new “Emails from Instagram” option in your app’s Security settings. This is the app’s way of helping you work out if an email was actually sent by the company or if it is a phishing scam. The Verge reports that the new menu divides your Instagram emails into two categories; security emails and “other.”

Finsta

This isn’t an update rolled out by the parent company but a trend that has been gaining mass approval among millennials. The word is a combination of the words Fake and Insta. A finsta is a secondary account which isn’t as curated as the main Instagram account and is usually only meant for close friends. It is more authentic than the main account which may be for businesses and content creation purposes.