Facebook has previously announced during its recently-concluded F8 developer conference that the Android version of their sister social media platform, Instagram, is getting offline functionality, and in fact, the said feature is already starting to roll out in certain parts of the world. Reports say that people from New York are already able to get it to work on a phone running Android Nougat.

According to The Verge, offline mode could eventually make it to iOS as well in the near future. The offline mode feature goes beyond just queueing up a photo or saving a draft, which the app already let users do whenever they tried to post with poor network service.

With Instagram's new update, users can now like or comment on other users' photos, or even follow and unfollow accounts at will, without having to use any data connection. The next time a user's phone accesses the internet, Instagram will then go back through this history and complete each of those actions that were previously done.

According to Android Central, Instagram will also effectively cache some parts of the app, like commonly viewed profiles and the Explore tab, so that Instagrammers aren't just staring at a blank screen when they don't have a reliably good connection.

With that being said, Facebook is making an effort towards making Instagram a more usable platform even when offline. This is in line with Facebook's aim towards improving the experience for users in certain countries where there's either unreliable service or a limited access to any consistent internet connections.

This new move could be a huge leap for Instagram as the app continues its rapid growth in places outside the United States. With all this being said, Instagram, and all other social media platforms are indeed improving for the betterment of its users, and this is only the beginning of something more.

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