Social media platform Instagram to end live shopping feature on March 16

Social media platform Instagram has announced that it will discontinue its live shopping feature, which allows users to tag products in their live broadcasts on March 16.

"Beginning on March 16, 2023, you will no longer be able to tag products in live broadcasts on Instagram. This change will help us focus on products and features that provide the most value to our users," the company said in a support page.

However, users will still be able to set up and run their shops on the platform as the company continues to "invest in shopping experiences for people and businesses across feed, stories, Reels, ads and more."

The company further mentioned that other live broadcasting features will be unaffected, including the ability to schedule a live broadcast, to invite guests to join your live broadcast and to hold a live Q&A.

Last month, the social media platform had announced that it will remove the shopping tab from the main bar at the bottom of the screen, starting this month.

The button to create a new post will move down, and the Reels tab, which is currently present in the front and centre on the navigation bar, will replace the Shop tab.