Most Instagram users can only add a single URL to their profiles, but that may be about to change. Over the past few weeks, keen-eyed observers have noticed multiple links in the Insta bios of a few influencers.
As seen above, fashion creator Allegra Shaw added four links to her Instagram bio. Only some users are able to see the URLs, so Instagram seems to be testing this tool among a select portion of its community. Clicking on these links opens a menu where each individual URL can be accessed.
In other words, Instagram is operating like the link-in-bio companies that serve creators through the Meta-owned platform. Those companies have introduced dozens of tools to circumvent Instagram’s external link limitations, and the social giant appears to be rewriting its rules in response.
Subscribe to get the latest creator news
Tech leaker Alessandro Paluzzi noticed the expanded links-in-bio earlier this year, but Instagram has not officially announced the update. The platform’s tests seem to be getting more frequent. Business Insider located the new links on the bio of hairstylist Sarah Page, who told BI that she first gained access to the experimental feature “in the last month or two.”
Meta confirmed to Business Insider that is running public tests for its link-in-bio expansion. “I love the multiple links feature,” Page told BI. “When you’re an influencer, you usually need to put multiple links in your bio. It’s annoying when you can’t.”
If creators like Page begin using Instagram’s first-party tools to formulate their profiles, that could spell trouble for the link-in-bio companies that struck it rich by doing what Instagram couldn’t. Both Linktree and Koji announced multi-million-dollar funding rounds this year, and they may have raised capital at the right time. Linktree is already pivoting its brand to position itself as more than a link-in-bio company. It is touting itself as a builder of analytic services for creators, and the ability to collect those services within a single link is only part of the deal.
So even if Instagram brings profile URLs in-house, there will still be plenty of reasons for creators to enlist the Linktrees and Kojis of the world. These latest tests show us that the power of the link-in-bio industry has made Instagram’s one-link policy irrelevant — and a big change may be coming.
