On Thursday, Instagram introduced ‘Instagram Direct’ which is basically their answer to Snapchat. Instagram Direct is pretty much direct messaging with photos and videos, hence Snapchat. It’s pretty interesting that Instagram decided to add this feature since they are owned by Facebook now, and Facebook tried to buy Snapchat but they turned down Zuckerberg’s money. So it looks like Mark Zuckerberg is going after them one way or another.
Instagram now has over 150 million people capturing and sharing moments all around the globe. Now that may not sound like a lot, but remember Instagram is only 3 years old and started out as an iOS only app before coming to Android a year later and then getting a web version of their site (although you still cannot post pictures from instagram.com unfortunately).
Instagram Direct was built to feel natural to the Instagram experience you already know and love. Now when you open Instagram you’ll see the “Instagram Direct” icon in the upper right-hand corner next to the refresh icon. From there just tap the ‘+’ icon and take a picture or video and then your free to send it to whoever you like. You’ll see Direct messages from people you follow in that inbox, along with ‘Direct Requests’ from people that you don’t follow. So that way you won’t be getting bombarded with a ton of picture messages from people you don’t know. And knowing the teens out there, we know it’s going to happen.
Version 5.0 of Instagram is now available in the Play Store, and Apple’s iOS App Store for those with iOS devices. Instagram for Windows Phone is still in beta, thus it’s not yet available. You can check out the video below for more information on Instagram Direct and see what it’s all about. You can also read Instagram’s blog post here.
How many of you are excited about Instagram Direct? Let us know in the comments down below.