Instagram Direct Is A Private Photo And Video Messaging Feature. Here's How It Works.

You no longer have to share your selfles, photos of your delicious latte or adorable puppies with all your Instagram friends. You can now share them with just one friend, or up to 15 friends, privately.

CEO of Instagram Kevin Systrom today introduced Instagram Direct, a feature in the Instagram app that allows you to share your photos with smaller groups of people or with just a single friend.

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"Instagram Direct is a simple way to send photos and videos to your friends," Systrom said at an event in New York City. "We wanted to make this about moments you share with your friends."

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With the new version of the app, which will be available to iPhone and Android users today, you can tap the "Direct" tab and then select a friend or up to 15 friends to send the photo or video to. Then once your friends receive it, they can chat and "like" the photo.

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The app works more like a messaging service. You can even get push alerts when someone has sent you a message back.

Systrom addressed privacy issues about the service. Photos and videos you get from your followers will appear immediately. If you get a photo from someone who doesn't follow you, it will go into your requests folder, so you can decide if you want to see it.

bbc.co.uk

"We don't show the image from someone who isn't following you. There is no potential of getting images you don't want to see," he explained.

Instagram's Direct feature comes as a number of social media companies are looking to win in the messaging market.

Earlier this week, Twitter added the ability to send photos in Direct Messages, and Facebook has also beefed up its Messenger app in the past few months with stickers and group chatting. Snapchat has also grown by leaps and bounds among younger users.

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But Instagram maintains it's not trying to take on Snapchat -- unlike Snapchats, Instagram Direct moments will not disappear after 10 seconds.

"Instagram is about capturing and sharing the world's moments," he said. "What we are best at is archiving those moments and sharing those."

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According to GigaOm, ‘well placed sources’ have indicated that the new features “are likely to be included within the next version of Instagram, expected for release before the end of the year.”

gizmodo.co.uk

GigaOm writes, "Well-placed sources tell us that the company is gearing up to launch new private messaging features inside its still red-hot photo and video sharing service. It is also experimenting with the idea of group messaging, our source tells us."

todaysiphone.com

Further adding, "The new features are likely to find home in the next version of Instagram, which is expected before end of the year. An Instagram spokesperson (not surprisingly) declined to comment."

gigaom.com

Right now Instagram allows users to share 15-second videos as well as images. The new feature will bring it up to messaging app Snapchat which allows users to share self destructing videos and messages.

Given reports that Snapchat processes around 400 million photos and videos a day, it’s unsurprising that Facebook reportedly attempted to buy the self-destructing media app for an alleged $3 billion.

All of this making rumours of their instant messaging feature, even more comprehendible.

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It has been suggested that integrating an instant messaging service within the Instagram platform could help the photo sharing service maintain its user base and prevent users being drawn away by the likes of rivals such as Snapchat.

hindustantimes.com

"It is fundamentally my belief that most applications need a layer of communication — comments and lightweight signals such as Facebook’s likes are part of that layer. And so is messaging. The web (and Internet in general) is getting closer to being synchronous, and alive, a concept I had described in my essay, The Alive Web."

gigaom.com

“It’s unclear what the messaging function will look like, but one could imagine a user might be able to share photos directly with certain friends or groups without needing to post to his public feed.”

redorbit.com

“It would make sense that messaging would be next on Instagram’s list. The popular app, which had 150 million users in September, and likely many more than that now, already allowed users to comment and tag others in their post descriptions,” noted Kurt Wagner of Mashable.

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The market for instant-messaging apps is already substantially crowded, with Whatsapp, SnapChat, BBM and Facebook’s own messaging app all enjoying their own chunks of the networking pie.

Although private messaging on the hipster photo sharing app likely would be welcome, as picture comments can snowball into full-blown conversations that are difficult to track on picture posts.

Moreover, notwithstanding its success, Instagram is now faced with the need to innovate and evolve to keep up with competitors such as Snapchat, which allows users to limit the amount of time a photo is visible to contacts.

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