Skip to main content

Just press harder — Instagram experimenting with 3D Touch ads and Apple Pay

just press harder instagram experimenting with 3d touch ads and apple pay landscape portrait
Instagram
Remember when Instagram was just another ad-less platform? If your memory doesn’t extend past two years, probably not — the photo-sharing platform first launched sponsored posts way back in November 2013. But given the breakneck speed at which both the tech and the advertising industries move, it’s no wonder that less than 800 days later, Instagram is taking things to the next level — and this time, it’s not about its filters. Instagram is now testing 3D Touch ads that allow you to purchase various items with Apple Pay, integrating a whole slew of high-tech innovations in an effort to get you to, well, spend some cash (or the digital equivalent).

In an effort to create ads that are more interactive (because what’s worse than an ad that you just have to look at?), Instagram is applying 3D Touch technology, which will allow viewers to scroll through different aspects or components of a photo, all by varying the degree of pressure they apply to the ad. This way, as Instagram and advertisers hope, viewers will interact with various parts of an ad, thereby becoming more engaged as they alternately find their way from a cute hoodie to some killer kicks, all by changing up how hard they press down on their screen.

Recommended Videos

This, combined with Apple Pay, which would allow potential buyers to make purchases with their fingerprints, does seem like a serious exploration of all the newest software made available by the new iOS.

“From an innovation standpoint, Instagram is where a lot of brands are putting the most eggs,” one ad agency executive told Digiday. “Force touch gets interesting, because instead of quickly tapping Shop Now to buy this one thing, you can choose from two or three offers. It makes for more frictionless shopping.”

This “frictionless shopping” experience is nothing new for the photo app, which also recently launched a Shop Now button to drive further sales for its advertisers.

Instagram — it’s not just a pretty face. It’s a ruthless selling machine.

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
AMD’s revolutionary 3D V-Cache chip could launch very soon
AMD Ryzen 5000G.

The launch of AMD's upcoming Ryzen 7 5800X3D processors is close, but a new leak tells us that it might be just a couple of weeks away.

According to a well-known source of hardware leaks, the processors have already started shipping. This indicates that they might hit the market by the end of this month. AMD estimates that its new processor could match up against the top chip from the Intel Alder Lake lineup.

Read more
AMD teases performance of its revolutionary 3D V-cache chip
AMD CEO holding 3D V-Cache CPU.

AMD is currently readying its new Ryzen 7 5800X3D, featuring a 3D V-cache, and it looks like we may soon have a powerful processor on our hands. AMD has teased that we can expect an up to 15% performance boost over the base Ryzen 7 5800X.

The tech giant talked about the new chip during the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSSC) and revealed more information about its architecture. While the Ryzen 7 5800X3D will certainly be an improvement, will it be enough to compete with Intel's best processors?

Read more
AMD’s 3D-stacked Ryzen 7 5800X3D is ‘world’s fastest gaming processor’
AMD CEO presenting new CPU.

The first processor to use a 3D V-Cache technology was announced at the big AMD CES 2022 keynote. The tech was first announced at Computex 2021, and fans have been eagerly awaiting a processor that will put it to use.

That processor is the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which seems like a strange place to start a new range of processors. AMD has its Ryzen 9 chips, after all. That's because the new Ryzen 7 can outclass AMD's Ryzen 9 5900X while gaming, despite using the same architecture.

Read more