They've been in testing for some time, but Instagram has now officially announced that a new audio clip option is coming to Notes in the app.

the new audio option for Notes will provide another way to engage via the group prompt option, which displays a Stories-like bubble at the top of the IG inbox for all of your contacts to see.

According to Mosseri:

“We haven’t started testing anything publicly yet, but we’re working on the ability to create audio notes to share with your friends.”

Audio notes could be of particular value in areas where multiple languages have been spoken because, in general, it is far more likely that one would be able to hear different forms of spoken language than to actually write them. That may make for a large user base expansion in India and other regions of strong cultural diversity.

Instagram launched the Notes feature back in December, as a way into the increasing adoption of DMs as a social option, with the main feed increasingly becoming a content discovery stream. TikTok has led the way on this: it's removed the focus on who you know in favour of the best content from everywhere on the app. Meta since then has aligned both Facebook and IG to converge on these lines, which is why more and more users are posting personal updates in Stories and DMs instead.

So whereas Notes serves more of a purpose as an engagement tool, to broadcast chat prompts for all to see.

And it's apparently catching on, especially with younger audiences, with Instagram reporting back in June that over 100 million teens had shared a Note in the preceding three months. Meta also says that teen users create Notes at 10 times the rate of non-teens.

With this in mind, IG recently added the feature of adding a song to your Note, which audio clips are set to become next in enhancing the experience.
It is interesting to see how such tools are adapted into the latest behavioral shifts. I would not have predicted that notes become a significant element, but then again, it does fit usage trends, while at the same time provides a quick and easy way for letting all of your close contacts know what you are up to at any given time.

Snapchat is the service that teens have generally used to fill this role. But perhaps, Notes is, too, and that could be a significant win for IG.
 
Audio clips may not seem like a big addition, either. But it gives another way for users to engage, and once more different communities will have different ways using the feature.