INSTAGRAM DMs

Spark conversations with friends in your Instagram DMs

Catch up with friends

Send messages, photos, and videos to friends and personalize them with effects. You can also reshare posts or connect on video chat.

More ways to express yourself

Use message effects, custom reactions, stickers, gifs, polls, and more to express whatever you’re feeling with friends. Customize your chat background with colors and themes.

Send messages that only last for a moment

Use vanish mode to have fun conversations with messages and photos that disappear after they’re seen, or when you close the chat.

Share your thoughts with Notes

Notes are a space in your Inbox for sharing your random thoughts and seeing what your friends are up to. They’re short posts of up to 60 characters using just text and emojis.

Instagram DMs are an in-app messaging feature that allow you to share and privately exchange text, photos, Reels, and posts with one or more people. Instagram DMs are a space for you to connect and collaborate over shared interests with friends.

Need help with something specific on Instagram?

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Get answers to all of your questions.

You can send messages, photos and videos in chats to one or more people on Instagram. Messages won’t appear in feed, search or your profile.

Send a message

To send a message to someone:

  1. Click send or messenger on the left.

  2. Click in the top left.

  3. Select the people you’d like to send a message to, then click Next.

  4. Enter a message. You can also click to select a photo or video from your library.

  5. Click Send.

To message someone you follow, you can also go to their profile and click Message.

Links you send will appear in the conversation with a preview image. When you send an address, you can click it from within the conversation to open your computer’s maps app.

Keep in mind, Instagram accounts you message may use third party apps or automated services to send messages in chats.

If you’re having trouble sending a message to someone on Instagram, try these troubleshooting steps to help solve the issue.

Learn how to view, react and reply to messages you receive.

Unsend a message you've sent in a chat on Instagram
  1. Click send or messenger on the left.

  2. Select the conversation and go to the message you'd like to unsend.

  3. Click more actions next to the message.

  4. Click Unsend, then click Unsend to confirm.

Once you unsend a message, it will no longer be visible to people included in the chat. Keep in mind that the people you sent it to may have already seen your message.

Note that your Data Download file doesn't include messages that you've unsent from your Instagram account.

You can start an audio or video call with up to 8 people on Instagram.

Start a call

To begin an audio or video call on Instagram:

  1. Click send or messenger on the left.

  2. Click an existing conversation on the left or start a new conversation.

  3. From your chat, you can:

    • Click call in the top right to start an audio call.

    • Click video chat in the top right to start a video call.

  4. Click Start call.

The person or group you call will receive a notification that you’re calling them.

Keep in mind that anyone you’ve accepted a message from, except for verified accounts, can video call with you. To prevent someone from video calling with you, you can block them.

Manage a call

While on an audio or video call, you can:

  • Enter full screen. Click expand in the top right to expand your call screen.

  • Update camera and audio settings. Click settings in the top right to make changes to your camera and audio settings.

  • End a video call. Click end call at the bottom to end your video call.

To manage who can send you message requests on Instagram:

  1. Tap profile or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.

  2. Tap more options in the top right, then tap settingsSettings and privacy.

  3. Below How others can interact with you, tap Messages and story replies.

  4. Tap Message controls.

  5. Choose whether message requests from people on Instagram go to your Message Requests folder or whether to receive them at all.

Note that you’ll need to accept message requests in your Message Requests folder before they appear in your Chats list. Messages from people you follow on Instagram will appear in your Chats list.

Manage group chat message requests

You can choose who can add you to groups.

To manage group settings:

  1. Tap profile or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.

  2. Tap more options in the top right, then tap settingsSettings and privacy.

  3. Below How others can interact with you, tap Messages and story replies.

  4. Tap Message controls.

  5. Tap Who can add you to groups. From here you can tap:

    • Everyone on Instagram: Group chats from Instagram accounts you’ve already connected with will appear in your Chats list. All other group chats will be sent to your Message Requests folder.

    • Only people you follow on Instagram: People you follow or have messaged before can add you to groups.

Accounts you’ve blocked won’t be able to send you message requests or add you to groups. If the account you’ve blocked is in a group chat you’ve been added to, you’ll be notified before you join the chat. Note if the person you blocked has multiple Instagram accounts, you may need to block each account.

Learn how to report a message on Instagram.

Instagram lets you send messages to one or more people in chats. These messages can include text and photos or videos you take or upload from your library. You can also send the following things as a message:

To see messages you've sent in chats
  1. Click send or messenger on the left.

  2. Click the conversation you want to view.

When you send a post from feed as a message, it'll only be visible to people who can already see it. For example, if you send a post from a private account as a message, only people who follow that account will be able to see it.

Photos or videos sent in a chat can't be shared through Instagram to other sites like Facebook or Twitter, and won't appear on hashtag and location pages.

Learn how to view messages you've received on Instagram.

You can send posts you see on Instagram as a direct message. Messages won't appear in feed, search or your profile.

Send photos, reels or carousels as a direct message

  1. Click below the post you'd like to send.

  2. Click add next to the person or group from the list below or click Search to search for someone.

  3. Add an optional message, then click Send.

Keep in mind that when you send a private account's post as a message, only people who follow that account will be able to see the post. The person who uploaded the post won't be notified.

You can send a disappearing photo or video to others in chats on Instagram. After someone opens a disappearing photo or video you've sent them, the message is no longer visible to them in the chat unless you've allowed a replay of your message.

Send a disappearing photo or video

To send a disappearing photo or video:

  1. Tap send or messenger in the top right of Feed.

  2. Tap a chat from your Chats list or start a new chat.

  3. Tap camera in the bottom left.

  4. You can choose to:

    • Take a photo or video. Tap the circle at the bottom of the screen to take a photo or tap and hold the circle to record a video.

    • Upload a picture or video from your device. Tap the image icon in the bottom left of the screen to choose a photo or video from your device.

  5. Customize your photo or video by adding text, a drawing or GIF.

  6. Before sending your message, tap the icon in the bottom left of your screen to:

    • Select View Once to let the person or group receiving your photo or video only view it once.

    • Select Allow Replay to loop your photo or video and to let the recipient open and replay your photo or video one more time before it disappears.

    • Select Keep in Chat to keep a preview image of the photo or video visible in the chat thread.

  7. Tap Send in the bottom right.

Keep in mind

Learn how to also turn on vanish mode in your chat to send disappearing messages, photos, videos and other content.

This feature isn’t available to everyone.

Notes that your friends share will be at the top of your inbox on Instagram.

Interact with notes

To reply to someone’s note:

  1. Tap send or messenger in the top right of Feed.

  2. Tap a note at the top of your inbox.

  3. Tap Send message… and enter your reply.

  4. Tap Send. Your reply will be sent as direct message.

If you see a note that doesn’t follow Instagram’s Community Guidelines, you can report it.

Mute notes from someone

You can choose to hide notes shared by someone at any time from the Instagram app.

To mute notes from someone:
  1. Tap send or messenger in the top right of Feed.

  2. Tap and hold a note.

  3. Tap Mute notes, then confirm your choice.

People will not be notified when you mute their notes.

To unmute notes from someone:
  1. Go to your feed, then tap search at the bottom.

  2. Tap Search at the top and enter their username to find and go to their profile.

  3. Tap Following at the top, then tap Mute.

  4. Tap Mute notes, then confirm your choice.

  5. Tap switch on next to Notes.

Keep in mind that muting someone’s notes will not apply to stories or posts they share. You will still see stories or posts they share in feed. Learn how to also mute their stories or posts they share to feed.

Learn how to share a note on Instagram.

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