NFTs will come to Instagram in the next “several months.”Source: Engadget
NFTs will come to Instagram in the next “several months.” Source: Engadget

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the company is working to bring Non-Fungible Tokens or NFTs to Instagram. Zuckerberg announced this during an address to the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas. There was no clear timeline given as to when this will happen. The Meta CEO, however, noted that the plan is to have the NFTs on Instagram in the next “several months.” He also added that users will be able to import their NFTs from other platforms and bring them to Instagram. 

Meta will eventually provide tools that allow creators to mint NFTs on the picture-sharing service. The NFT craze has become quite popular among social media companies. In fact, Meta is not the only social media company exploring this idea. At the start of 2022, Twitter also announced that it would provide an NFT feature in its subscription service Twitter Blue. The feature will allow iOS users to convert their profile pictures into NFTs. 

However, there is still no way to mint NFTs directly via Twitter Blue. There were also reports that Meta was working on a similar feature. In fact, a publication by the Financial Times indicated that Meta Platforms users will soon be able to turn their profile pictures into NFTs. Meta also wants to take this a bit further. There are reports it is integrating a marketplace within its social media platforms where users can trade NFTs.

The company is laying down the groundwork for the metaverse. Source: Techcrunch
The company is laying down the groundwork for the metaverse. Source: Techcrunch

Zuckerberg is looking to completely transform social media and transition the world into the metaverse. In fact, just last year, the company changed its name to Meta. This was designed to reflect the strategic direction the company was taking. The metaverse, in particular, is seen as the next age of the internet. 

The ability for people to interact digitally in an immersive experience is what Meta is all about. So far, other tech giants have been picking up the idea including Apple and Google. We are not sure how the Metaverse transition will be done. But it is likely to start with simple stuff, including NFT integration into social media. 

The recent announcement by Zuckerberg is a clear indication that his company is laying down the groundwork for the metaverse. The Meta CEO hinted that NFTs will be a big part of this immersive experience during the SXSW conference.

The CEO was quick to admit that there is still a lot of work left. Source: TechNave
The CEO was quick to admit that there is still a lot of work left. Source: TechNave

Zuckerberg remarked that it would be amazing if anything in the metaverse, including the clothes an avatar is wearing, could be turned into an NFT. However, the Meta CEO was quick to admit that there is still a lot of work left. Zuckerberg told the SXSW conference that a fully functioning metaverse was still “a few years off.”

But NFT integration into platforms owned and run by Meta will likely come much sooner. Some analysts in fact believe that most of these integrations will likely happen before the end of the year. NFTs, on the other hand, are expected to boom again in 2022 as wide-scale adoption continues in the weeks and months ahead.