As promised by CEO Mark Zuckerberg back in March, Meta’s photo sharing platform Instagram will roll out a limited test run of its imminent NFT feature to a small number of US creators within this week. Through this, select users are able to showcase their owned or self-produced digital collectibles on the platform.
The upcoming test was first announced by Zuckerberg in a recent post on Facebook. Additionally, he confirmed that a similar feature would be made available on Meta’s primary social media platform in the near future, along with possible implementations on its other platforms such as WhatsApp, Messenger and, of course, its upcoming metaverse at a much later date. Besides that, the Meta CEO also teased an upcoming augmented reality feature via Spark AR which would allow creators on Instagram to “place digital art in physical spaces.”
In a separate announcement via Twitter, Instagram head Adam Mosseri revealed that the NFT feature will enable users to share their digital collectibles through their feed, Stories, and even messages. He added the implementation could also provide a way for creators to earn a living on the platform, which suggests the imminent introduction of buying and selling NFTs somewhere down the line.
Additionally, Mosseri said that users are not required to pay any fees for posting or sharing a digital collectible on Instagram. This is not to be confused with the process of NFT minting, an ability which Zuckerberg previously mentioned that will eventually be made available on the platform. On that note, it is still not known whether Meta will charge creators with a gas fee for the process once the feature is introduced.
NFTs on Instagram 🎉
This week we’re beginning to test digital collectibles with a handful of US creators and collectors who will be able to share NFTs on Instagram. There will be no fees associated with posting or sharing a digital collectible on IG.
See you next week! ✌🏼 pic.twitter.com/VuJbMVSBDr
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) May 9, 2022
Meta did not say how long this test is expected to take, or when it is expected to be publicly available for all Instagram users around the world.
