New: Updates to Instagram Direct Message

Today, we’re launching the new Direct to make it fast and easy to turn any conversation into a visual conversation with photos and videos. Texts and reshares will now appear in the same thread with disappearing photos and videos so you can seamlessly go back and forth with your friends.

Send a disappearing photo or video to let your friends know what you’re up to, a funny selfie to capture the mood or share what’s happening around you. Here’s how it works:

• Simply swipe left into Direct and tap the new blue camera icon at the bottom to take a disappearing photo or video, or tap the blue camera icon in an existing thread. As always, swiping right from feed will take you directly to the camera.
• Tap the arrow to send it to individual friends or groups of friends.
• Keep track of who has seen your message through notifications within the thread.

When you receive new disappearing messages, they’ll be highlighted blue in your inbox. Tap to view them and you can replay them once. The sender will be notified if you replay or screenshot the message.

Texts, uploads and reshares still work the same way.

Since our last update in November 2016, the number of people using Direct has grown from 300 million to 375 million. We want to make Direct the best place to have fun, visual conversations with your friends. Stay tuned for more.

To learn more about the new Direct, check out the Instagram Help Center.

The new Direct is available for iOS and Android in the Apple App Store and Google Play as part of Instagram version 10.16.