Social-Media
Instagram may be preparing to charge a fee for linking under the headings, patents say.
Influencers, prepare yourself: Instagram can consider charging a fee to add links to picture captions, as indicated by the patent application. Mike Murphy learned this as part of his (fascinating!) weekly tech patent roundup at Protocol.
The patent application filed by Instagram's parent company Facebook for the first time back in 2016 reveals a pop-up when the user attaches a URL to the caption asking if the user needs to pay $2 to keep the connection work.
The patent application ('adding paying links to media captions in a social networking environment') explains how the mechanism will work: 'If the online environment senses the text content of the caption, including a string of the link text that specifies the address, the online mechanism requests the posting user to pay a charge in return for creating a connection.'
This, of course, has long been one of the greatest criticisms about Instagram: you can't add URLs to picture captions if you want to attach a link to a blog, product, or something else in your article. Most people are using the "link in bio" path, and confirmed users of Insta will add links to the Posts.
The concern here is whether Instagram influencers, advertisers, and other users would be able to pay a per-link fee. But it seems like a no-brainer to produce sales for Instagram if it comes into effect.
However, as with any patent, it is important to remember that businesses file for patents all the time on goods and services that never come to fruition, but there is no guarantee whether or not this functionality will really exist. Maybe just don't splurge on the latest selfie stick.
