Last week, Instagram was taking a page from Snapchat’s playbook once again. According to TechCrunch, it was confirmed by the Facebook-owned social media site that it is testing Nametags, which works similarly to Sanpchat’s Snapcodes.
With Nametags, users can create an image that other users will be able to scan with the Instagram Stories camera to follow somebody. This feature is going to make it easy for Instagram users to get more followers, but brands and influencers will have the ability to use Instagram’s scannable images outside of Instagram to help grow their audience, such as on posters or merchandise.
TechCrunch says that Instagram profiles will include a QR scanner button that opens a Nametag editor screen. From there, users will have the ability to create their Nametags.
From the TechCrunch report:
They [users] can then choose from a purple Instagram color gradient background, a pattern of one emoji they choose or a selfie they can jazz up with augmented reality face filters that then becomes an emoji pattern. The user’s Instagram username appears in the center. For now, users in the test group can’t share or scan Nametags. But the code we discovered explains that users can scan them to follow people.