Introducing “Instagram Direct”

Marissa Mele - December 17, 2013

Just a few weeks ago Gigaom & Techcrunch reported that messaging was on the horizon for Instagram, and now it is here! The changes rolled out late last week. Dubbed “Instagram Direct,” this unique service allows users to share photos and videos directly with other Instagram users. What is really cool about this feature is that people that you elect to privately share your photos and videos with will be able to like and comment just like they would with any other Instagram post. Check out the video below to see just how easy it is to use:

With over 200 million users and 150 million monthly active users, Instagramers have been gobbling up this new private messaging feature and possibly even using it similarly to Snapchat without the disappearing photo functionality of course. This new feature will eliminate the need for apps like Instachat, InstaMessage and InstaDM which allow you to send direct messages right to your Instagram contacts.

TechCrunch has compared this push for an advanced feature like private messaging to Facebook’s messaging system in 2010. With Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram, we expect to see a great deal more integration and additional functionality with Facebook’s developers and team at the Instagram helm.

What do you all think? Have you tried out “Instagram Direct” yet? Comment below with your experiences.