June is Pride Month and Instagram is ready to celebrate the LGBT+ community. The app is adding some colorful new additions to the Instagram and Pride experience.

Instagram is committed to fostering a safer, kinder and more inclusive community.

For Instagram Stories, the app will feature a new rainbow background in Type mode (the story feature which lets you post text on a colorful background). Along with that, new rainbow versions of stickers for mention, hashtag, and location will be introduced. In Instagram Live, while watching a video, when you tap the heart, a different color of the Pride rainbow will appear. Holding down the heart will shower the person you are watching (and everyone watching with you) with rainbow hearts.

Instagram Is Celebrating Pride Month With Some New Rainbow Features

Instagram also hopes to encourage users to connect with others in the community by exploring photos and videos with specific hashtags. These tags, identified with the help of GLAAD (an organization at the forefront LGBT+ rights), are the hashtags that are often used in the LGBT+ community and will feature the pride rainbow colors as well.

Apart from the features, Instagram, citing the fact that they are a home for “diverse youth activism and expression”, is also celebrating Pride by honoring youth activist. They gathered five young leaders from the community (in real life) and surprised them with their role models. The pairs talked about their lives, their work, and how they inspire others. You can see the video here.

Instagram encouraged others to participate:

To celebrate #Pride2018, mention your #RoleModel in your stories and share how they inspire you.

The features are now available for the Android and will drop on iOS in the coming weeks.


Cover Photo: Sharon McCutcheon