- Instagram has announced a number of new direct message features.
- Users can edit DMs, turn off read receipts, and pin messages from top contacts.
- Messaging has been a top priority for Instagram for the past few years.
Instagram has announced a new feature that lets you edit your direct messages if you notice a mistake within 15 minutes.
Long-press on a message to display an edit button to change your response. The app will let the recipient know that the message has been edited, but it won't tell them what was changed. Before this update, if a user wanted to undo a mistake, they had to unsend and delete the message.
You can also turn off read receipts if you don't want others to know that you saw your messages. Can be applied to specific people or all chats. You can change your read receipts by going to Messaging & Story Replies in your account settings and toggling the read receipt button off.
You'll also soon be able to pin three message threads to the top of your inbox. Instead of scrolling through tons of messages, you can keep the messages from the people you've talked to the most at the top.
Meta also rolls out other DM upgrades, including allowing users to respond to messages with stickers, GIFs, videos, and voice notes, as well as customizing chat backgrounds, similar to features available on WhatsApp doing.
A few years ago, Instagram moved away from being just a photo-sharing app and made messaging a priority. Many people use DMs to share content instead of sharing on their main feed or Stories. Back in 2022, Mark Zuckerberg said in his earnings call that 1 billion reels were shared daily through DMs.
Zuckerberg added that messaging presents a “huge monetization opportunity” for Meta, particularly through advertising. Direct His Messaging also allows content creators to monetize through subscriber-only group chats and market paid partnerships with brands.
