Instagram Direct rolls out threaded messaging and sending feed content privately

Instagram 7.5 for iOS iPhone screenshot 001

Tuesday, Facebook-owned Instagram launched some notable improvements for its private-messaging feature, called Instagram Direct.

Available in Instagram’s 7.5 update, a free download in the App Store, Instagram Direct now supports threaded conversationsĀ and allows you to pick a photo from a user’sĀ feed to send to a friend or group privatelyĀ as a Direct message.

Feed content sharing

Previously, you could only send a single photo to a friend or a group of friends privately but now Instagram Direct supports sharing postsĀ in your Instagram feed via a Direct Message. The improvement is expected to make it less desirable to @mention friends in comments: Instagram says that nearly forty percent of comments include an @-mention.

To share a photo in your feed privately with a friend or a group of friends, tap an arrow which can be found next to the Like/Comment icons under every post. Doing so sends that post to a friend or group as a message using Instagram Direct.

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ā€œIt will appear as part of your conversation, and you can tap the photo or video to see and like the original post,ā€ Instagram explains. ā€œYou can also send hashtag pages and location pages by tapping the arrow icon in the top right-hand corner.ā€

Threaded conversations

Before today, Instagram Direct supported one-to-one messaging.

With today’s update, threaded chats based on the people in them are now possible. Each threaded conversation can be named so it’s easier to find later. Another nice-to-haves: there’s a new quick camera feature for on-the-fly selfies and oversized emoji characters are supported in chats.

Privacy

Any photo or video content that you send using Direct is only visible to those who could already see them. If the owner of a photo or video has their account set to private, only people who follow their account will be able to see it if itā€™s sent as a message in Direct.

More information about todayā€™s updates isĀ available in the Instagram Help Center.

Instagram 7.5 changelog

iTunes release notes list the following changes in Instagram 7.5 for iPhone:

  • Now you can share posts you see on Instagram as messages. Just tap the arrow under the post.
  • Send photos, videos and text messages back and forth to keep conversations going.
  • Name group conversations so they’re easy to find.

They still haven’t redesigned the app icon though.

Availability

Instagram, a 21.7-megabyte download, requires an iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 7.0 or later. The app is fully optimized for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus andĀ sportsĀ a glance for your Apple Watch.

Instagram is localized in English, BokmƄl, Norwegian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish and Vietnamese.

Grab Instagram for free in the App Store.

Source: Instagram