Takeaways
On May 13, Instagram is launching Instants, a new way to share in the moment – with spontaneous, unfiltered photos– with friends. Instants are ephemeral to viewers, but are saved in your archive for up to a year and can be reshared as a recap to Stories. Friends can react and reply, with replies going straight to DMs. There's also an Instants companion app for quicker camera access. Full Teen Accounts and Family Center protections apply, including shared time limits, Sleep Mode, and parental supervision.
Today, we're excited to announce a new way to share on Instagram: Instants, a new feature and a separate app, that makes it easier to share life’s moments with friends as they happen.
We want to make it easier to share in the moment with friends — so we're introducing Instants, a new way to share casual, everyday photos that disappear after your friends view them. Instants live in the bottom right corner of your Instagram inbox, and with a simple tap of the camera, you can share photos with close friends or mutuals (followers you follow back). No edits, no pressure, just life as it happens.
How it works:
• Go to your Instagram inbox and tap the mini stack of photos at the bottom right corner.
• You can add a caption (unlike stories, you add the caption first!), but can’t further edit instants.
• Choose who to share your instants with – Close Friends or followers you follow back. Your friends can react, reply, and share instants as well.
• Tap the white button below the camera to share as many times as you want. An undo button will automatically appear the moment you share an instant in case you want to quickly take it back before it gets shared with friends.
• Instants you share will show up as a stack of photos in the bottom right corner of your friends’ inboxes, and disappear after viewed, and can’t be seen after 24 hours.
More ways to use instants:
• Archive – Your shared instants are saved in a private archive, which you can access for just you to see on the top right corner of instants.
• Recap to stories – Compile instants from your archive into a recap and post to stories, for all of your followers. Just tap “Create recap” in your archive.
• Undo – Accidentally shared an instant? Quickly take it back before friends see it by tapping the undo button. You can also delete an instant from your archive to unshare it to friends who haven’t opened it yet.
• Snooze – Hold down the stack of instants by your inbox and swipe right to temporarily stop seeing them. Bring back instants by holding down the same spot and swiping left.
Separate Instants app for quicker access to camera
We’ve been testing instants for a while, and one thing we heard was that people wanted a quicker, easier way to get into the camera. To make that easier, we’re experimenting with an Instants standalone app in select countries.
The app gives you immediate access to the camera — just log in with your existing Instagram account. Instants you share on the separate app will show up for friends on Instagram and vice versa. We’re trying this separate app out to see how our community uses it, and we’ll continue to evolve it as we learn more.For those who want a quicker way to share in the moment, we're also rolling out an Instants app in select countries on iOS and Android.*
Built in safety & privacy
All the safety and privacy protections built into Instagram apply to Instants, whether you're on Instagram or on the Instants app. Instagram’s in-app controls including block, mute and restrict all apply to instants – so you can limit receiving instants from specific friends. Your instants can only be seen by those you choose to share it with – your Close Friends, or mutuals (followers you follow back).
For teens, Instants (both the feature and the app) is automatically integrated with Teen Accounts and parental supervision. There is no separate setup — if a parent already supervises their teen on Instagram, that supervision automatically extends to Instants. This includes:
• Shared time limits – Time spent on Instants (both the feature and the app) counts toward a teen's daily time limit on Instagram.
• Sleep Mode – Notifications are muted and access is restricted by default between 10 PM and 7 AM for teens.
• Same safety tools – Instagram's in-app controls including block, mute, and restrict all apply to instants, whether you're on Instagram or on the Instants app.
• No screenshots – instants can’t be screenshot or screenrecorded.
• Our Community Standards apply to Instants (both the feature and the app): We'll use technology to find and remove instants that break these rules, and people can report instants for review.
• Parent notification – Parents of supervised teens are notified the first time their teen downloads the Instants app.
Instants is available globally starting today as a feature on Instagram. The Instants app is available in select countries.