Instagram is one of the most sought out social media networks , where photos and short videos regarding daily life can be shared by users. The primary aim for the creation of Instagram was to become a competitor in the messaging space.
Following this, Instagram is simplifying its messaging options right now so that every conversation winds up in the identical place. This means that all conversations between clients, be it permanent text messages or ephemeral photo and video messages , will now appear in the same location in a common chat window.
Previously, permanent and ephemeral messages appear in two separate spots inside "Instagram Direct"; ephemeral at the top of the screen, permanent at the bottom. But now, ephemeral messages will begin appearing directly inside of permanent chat threads.
They’ll still disappear once the photo or video has been viewed, but there’ll be a notification that something has been shared. Though, Instagram Stories and ephemeral messaging have gotten a lot more people to use the app as a messenger.
Instagram says that "Instagram Direct" has up to 375 million monthly users, from the previous 300 million in November. Back in August, when Stories launched, the feature was at 250 million monthly users, so it’s seen a huge amount of growth this year.
Instagram seems to see photos and videos as the primary driver of communication, as it’s making one other small change to Direct’s interface: the “new message” button at the bottom of the screen is being replaced with a big blue “camera” button.
While this is by and large great news for Facebook, it suggests the company’s battle against Snapchat (by cloning all of the app’s best features) is working. It also shows more and more of Facebook’s content going ephemeral. That may be good news for growth in the short term, but in the long run, it may mean an emptier network that’s harder to monetize and gives people fewer reasons to return.
