Social Links bar should include Instagram as an option

[BS4Tactful]

I’m part of the team working on Adopt Me, and the limits of the social bar make it incredibly hard for us to effectively communicate with and support our players.

We think that Instagram should be added to this list of supported domains. You already have Facebook, who own and operate Instagram. In a recent poll we found a significant amount of our playerbase use Instagram - probably more than Twitter. We’d like to create an Instagram for our game, but we have no way to link it from the social links page.

Social Links should support linking to Instagram as a channel. Instagram is more popular among young players than Facebook, Twitch and Twitter which are all supported. These changes would make the experience of using the Roblox platform better for players, and allow developers to better communicate with and support their playerbases.

[The_Yemeni]

I support this idea, but there are some problems.

Facebook is not as ideal to share Roblox development since you’re generally required to make an account that contains your legal name and some other personal information. Some people don’t want their information given out, especially if thousands of players would see it. I’m aware that you can make accounts like business pages, but those generally require other information such as numbers or email and it just isn’t feasible.

Instagram allows you to make a profile using a simple username rather than a full-fledged name. You can also make into a business profile without as much extra work compared to Facebook. Also, Instagram seems to be very active in terms of using hashtags, which is a good way to get your post known around the network.

The only downside Instagram isn’t a supported domain is because it’s primarily for mobile. Yes, a desktop version exists, but it’s almost impossible to make a new post from it. Overall, Instagram seems to cater more to the app as numerous problems and bugs occur on the website such as likes not registering or feed not loading. It wasn’t until recently that they added the ability to properly reply to comments on posts via website.

[BS4Tactful]

Clicking an instagram link on mobile will prompt your OS to open the app, or you can navigate to the website. Instagram links open fine on desktop, allowing you to browse and follow if you’re logged in. If not, it’s easy to open the app on your phone and follow. I don’t think it’s particularly different to Twitter in this regard, and this isn’t a reason not to add it - Facebook pages are far more restrictive with regards to gating content behind logins.

[TheAmazeman]

As a Roblox developer, it is currently impossible to showcase our group’s development Instagram in front of our audience on the social links portion of our game’s page.

Currently, these are the only Socials listed available to put directly in front of Roblox players.

Facebook, the largest social network, is one of the options, which may be good for those taking that opportunity. Instagram is owned by Facebook, though a separate audience mainly leaning younger, more in-tune with the future of social media. Here is an article going a bit more in-depth

Instagram vs Facebook: which is best for your brand’s strategy?

Facebook:

Instagram:

I think having Facebook warrants putting Instagram as well, and I think being able to showcase Instagram could improve development success for smaller niche game developers and mainstream developers alike, while building a brand image.

Note: I have personally seen much more engagement on an Instagram account with less than 1000 followers than my 6 year old twitter with 30k+ followers. I am biased for Instagram

[CovertCode]

Recently I went to add my instagram page on Roblox but realized that you cannot. I do not understand why this is, you have Facebook which is currently supported by the platform, yet Instagram is not. Instagram is owned by Facebook, though they have different audiences as shown by the demographics which have been posted previously by @TheAmazeMan . Roblox even has an instagram account which they use to reach out to players! Why can’t developers do the same?

Instagram is used by a younger audience than Facebook, and this accounts for the majority of the Roblox community.

Source: Tech Crunch Article

Developers can also promote their pages more easily through this feature, and according to TheAmazeMan it can also “improve development success for smaller niche game developers and mainstream developers alike, while building a brand image”. (Which I fully agree with!)

According to Oberlo, 71% of the businesses in the United States use Instagram, and if Roblox wants to allow developers to establish real businesses with both a real-life and online presence (Like Red Manta), then I think adding Instagram compatibility would be a great way to do this.

It would look something like this:

[Ultraw]

Yes please!

I recently made an Instagram account for my game and I have been trying to grow it! A social link would be incredibly helpful.

[opplo]

I’d still love this to be a feature.

The growth of Instagram is substantially bigger for younger people compared to Twitter as mentioned by @CovertCode above.

[JustSeanC]

Bumping this up again. Instagram is an untapped market for Roblox. Please add it