The Instagram Direct feature is great if you want to have a private conversation on Facebook’s photo-sharing network. As we’ve been seeing recently that Facebook’s properties have been receiving features inspired by Snapchat, it was not surprising when Instagram Direct got ephemeral or disappearing messages. It’s now combining them with permanent messages to blue the difference between the two.

Instagram previously displayed permanent messages and ephemeral messages in two separate spots inside Instagram Direct. This is being simplified starting today so that all private conversations, whether permanent or ephemeral, exist in the same place.

Instagram points out that since launching disappearing messages for Direct in November last year, it has seen a significant increase in the usage of Direct, which has increased from 300 million to 375 million in just a few months.

Previously, ephemeral messages were displayed at the top of the screen while permanent messages could be found at the bottom. That changes today as ephemeral messages will now be displayed inside permanent chat threads.

They won’t stick around, though, ephemeral messages will disappear once the photo or video has been viewed by the recipient.

The idea here is to make it easier for users to have an ongoing conversation in which they can also send disappearing photos and videos without having to switch between two different spots inside the app.

Filed in Cellphones. Read more about and . Source: blog.instagram

Discover more from Ubergizmo

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading