Image credit – TechCrunch
With Instagram, users can send Stories privately to each other. Users can then replay the Story until it eventually disappears, which is considerably longer than what Snapchat allows its users to do where after a brief moment, it disappears (which was one of the defining features of Snapchat to begin with).
Now according to a report from TechCrunch, it looks like Instagram will be introducing some new privacy control for its Direct messaging feature. As you can see in the screenshot above, users will now have three new options to choose from when send Stories via Direct. They can choose to allow the recipient to view it just once, allow it to be replayed, or keep it in the chat.
It has been suggested that these new features have been introduced to encourage users to send more sensitive imagery, although whether or not you think that sensitive messages should be sent over social media platforms is a debate for another day. However the option will be there for those who want it.
Also by introducing more privacy controls, Instagram will make its Direct feature more compelling compared to Snapchat, especially for users who want to have more control over how often their Stories get replayed by the people they sent it to directly.