How To Use The Eraser Brush On Instagram

You can't say you didn't see this coming. Instagram launched its official face filters on Tuesday and, with it, a few other tools intended to up your IG story game. For starters, you'll want to know how to use the eraser brush on Instagram, because it's easily the simplest new feature.

The eraser itself is pretty intuitive. Just think of it as a reverse paintbrush; It has all of you paintbrush-like features, just flipped. To start, open up Instagram and tap the camera button in the top left corner of your screen. From here you can take an image, or swipe up to add something from your camera roll (though it has to have been captured/screenshot within the past 24 hours). From there, tap the marker icon — it's between the sticker icon and the text icon. The eraser brush is your fourth choice, all the way at the end. Anything you draw with any of the markers can be erased with the eraser brush, even if it was drawn with the glowing, neon tool.

In order to change the size of your eraser brush, tap the bottom left corner of your screen that features three dots in increasing sizes. A little white circle will appear, which you can drag up or down depending on how big or small you need your eraser brush to be.

Another way to use the eraser brush? Embrace negative space. Users can fill in their entire photo with a color using one of the marker tools (just tap and hold to cover the screen), then utilize the eraser to take away some of it, adding a new spin on their stories. Instagram's blog has an adorable example of this, which you'll definitely want to emulate.

See my toying with the eraser brush below. Between the two images, I kept the "hey," but used my eraser brush to take away the "moon" and the original arrow that were crowding the image, drawing a smaller arrow instead:

It's really that easy. Once you've mastered the art of the eraser brush, there are a few other updates with which you'll want to get up to speed. Instagram's hashtag stickers are new as well, and you can also now play videos in reverse before posting them to your story. The aforementioned face filters include regal crowns, animal faces, and nerd glasses; Download Instagram's newest update and see it all for yourself.