Instagram has taken a step towards solidifying its social networking roots by allowing direct messaging, and the ability to send photos and videos directly to specific users. Meet Instagram Direct.
The focus of the photography service in the past was to post photos and share on a wide scale to the rest of the web. Links could be posted in email, messages or other social networks like Facebook.
Now, with Instagram Direct users will be able to directly communicate with one another for the first time, using a private messaging system. This will include an option for attaching videos or photos to those messages, sharing them with individuals instead of their wider account.“Communication is not about photography, necessarily,” CEO Kevin Systrom explained at a New York event where the feature was unveiled.
“If we were about photography we’d be built into cameras, but we’re not, we’re built into phones.”
These features are being rounded out with a few others, such as real time likes and chat. But the fact that messages stay put is a big part of the change, as they want you to be able to go back and see how people have reacted to photos and videos both in shared albums, and in private communications.
Private messages will be able to have up to 15 recipients at once, opening up a wider conversation in a similar way to what you see on Facebook and other messaging systems. They will also have requests to allow each user to better control their inbox.
“Sometimes you want to be able to share not with everyone, but just with a specific group,” Systrom said of the move. But he went on to say that all messages can only be sent along with a photo or video, starting at that point and then allowing people to discuss it from there.
That fact does add an interesting element to the change, as it will be unlike any other messaging system out there. It will also keep the focus on content, rather than slide it into the realm of person-to-person based social networking. It will still be about media, and that’s a good thing.
Source: Instagram Blog
