Instagram has announced a new feature Instagram Direct at an event in New York City. Instagram Direct is a new messaging feature for Instagram users that lets them to send texts, photo and video messages privately with their close ones. According to the Instagram blog, Instagram Direct is a whole new way to send photo and video messages to friends.
Over the more than 150 million people capturing and sharing moments in forms of photos and videos, Instagram is one of the most popular photo/video sharing application around the web. Instagram has always been a mostly public social network, with a broadcast structure. But with the introduction of new feature like Instagram Direcct one can make connection based private chat on Instagram on mutual friendship.
“Communication is not about photography, necessarily. If we were about photography we’d be built into cameras, but we’re not, we’re built into phones. Instagram up to this point focused on photos and videos — ‘moments’ — as Instagram calls them. Messaging adds a third dimension to the app that lets people communicate using words, but more importantly to do so privately, if you’d like. Sometimes you want to be able to share not with everyone, but just with a specific group,” said Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom.
Now, users who follow each other will be able to send each other private chat-like messages, which can include texts, photos or videos – however, users can’t send just text right from the Instagram Direct, each conversation needs to start with a photo. Users will be able to send photos or videos directly to up to 15 people at a time.
When you open Instagram, you’ll now see a new icon in the top right corner of your home feed. Tap it to see photos and videos that people have sent directly to you. To send a photo or video, once you’ve finished editing a photo in Instagram, you’ll see two new tabs on the top of the post: Followers and Direct. With Direct option, you can choose a specific friend or group of people – just tap the names of the people you want to send your photo or video to – and type a special message, and that goes only to your friend/friends. You will also be able to see the notifications to find out who’s seen your photo or video, see who’s liked it and also watch your recipients commenting in real-time as the conversation unfolds.
Instagram version 5.0 with Instagram Direct feature is now available for iOS and Android from the respective app stores. You can update your installed version or download the new version from the links below.
Download Instagram for iOS from iTunes
Download Instagram for Android from Google Play Store
Source: Instagram Blog
