How do you message on instagram desktop

How to Send and Receive DMs on Instagram From a Computer

You can DM on Instagram from your computer using any internet browser.
To send direct messages from your computer, head to the Instagram website and click the paper plane icon in the top-right.
This story is part of Business Insider's Guide to Instagram.

In April 2020, Instagram added the ability to send direct messages to its desktop website.

This means that Instagram users can now send direct messages, photos, gifs, and other kinds of media, as well as start group chats, unsend messages, and reply to chats using reactions, right from their desktop.

However, some direct message features — like video chats — only remain available In the mobile app version.

Here's how to use the direct message feature on Instagram using your desktop computer.

How to send a direct message on Instagram from a computer

1. Using your preferred internet browser, go to the Instagram desktop website and log in.

2. Once you've logged in, select the paper plane icon in the top-right corner to access Direct Messages.

You can access your direct messages from any page. Meira Gebel/Business Insider

3. You'll be shown all of your active conversations. Click one to open it, or start a new one by clicking "Send Message" or the pencil-and-paper icon.

There are two ways to start a new conversation.

Meira Gebel/Business Insider

4. When starting a new conversation, begin typing in the name or username of the person you want to message, or select an account from the list of "Suggested" users.

5. Type your message into the text box at the bottom, and then select "Send."

You can also press Enter or Return to send it. Meira Gebel/Business Insider

Once you've sent a message, you can click the three dots next to it and then click "Unsend" to take the message back.

Once you unsend a message, the message will be removed from the chat, no matter if the recipient has seen it or not. There's no time limit for unsending messages on Instagram.

You can "Unsend" a message at any time. Meira Gebel/Business Insider

You can also delete an entire chat conversation by clicking the "i" icon in the top-right, and then selecting "Delete chat." Note, however, that this only deletes the chat on your end — the recipient will still be able to see it.

This will delete every message in the conversation — on your end.

Meira Gebel/Business Insider

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William Antonelli and Kerry Wan contributed to a previous version of this article.

Meira Gebel

Meira Gebel is a freelance reporter based in Portland, Oregon. She writes about business, culture, and technology for Insider. Her work has been featured in Digital Trends, Willamette Week, USA Today, and more. She is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and San Francisco State University. Feel free to reach out to her on Twitter, where she can be found most of the time, @MeiraGebel.

Launching Instagram Messaging on Desktop

Yorgos Askalidis

September 25, 2020

On April 10th, 2020 we launched Instagram Messaging (referred to in this post simply as “Messaging”) for personal desktop computers. We believe that this feature will improve everyday experiences and enable new use cases for all of our desktop web users. In this post, we go through some of our overall learnings from our desktop users, and dive into the engineering and experimentation that enabled us to ship this product. We believe that these learnings can be applied to other services to improve user experiences across all of their interfaces.

Part I: Why multiple interfaces matter

Instagram is a mobile-first experience. In fact, for the first few years of its life, Instagram was a mobile-only experience, with the website redirecting users to download the app. But as a service matures, both in terms of the number of users it has as well as in terms of the use cases it serves, it’s important to expand our understanding of how new interfaces can add value to the user experience. For Instagram, the desktop web experience is the main alternative to native apps, and we have done a lot of qualitative and quantitative work around what use cases it can solve for our users.

One benefit that the desktop web experience adds to the native apps is that it enables a complementary relationship that leads to an enhanced user engagement. For example, we observe a complementary usage pattern throughout the day and week, with an increased usage of the desktop website during weekdays and daytime hours (6am - 2pm), while the native apps see an increased usage during evening hours (5pm-7pm) and weekends. This pattern is consistent with our user interviews that consistently demonstrate that users want to take small breaks while performing tasks for school or work. This analysis also demonstrates how important the desktop web experience is for Instagram business accounts, who often use their personal computers throughout their workdays.

Furthermore, we haven't found any evidence that the Instagram desktop web experience cannibalizes engagement from the native apps. In fact, it’s quite the opposite -- users who use both interfaces spend more time on each interface, compared to users who use each interface exclusively.

Taking into account these findings, we have focused on building products that can enhance the user experience throughout the Instagram ecosystem, including web interfaces. Messaging was a natural fit and one of the most requested features to develop for the desktop web interface based on our user research. Not only it enabled casual use cases, such as messaging from your computer while performing various other tasks, it also created new use cases geared towards power users, such as the ability to use a large screen and keyboard to reply to hundreds of messages.

Part II a): Engineering, from hack project to testing

Before Instagram Direct messaging (also referred to as simply Messaging) was developed for the desktop web experience, it started off as an offering for the mobile web experience. The messaging experience was one of the first new product areas we had added in a while and was architected in a way that would allow its independent usage with or without the rest of the website. Some of the technical achievements included:

Being the first part of our website to be written in purely functional components with React hooks, which was a newer paradigm at the time.
It was our primary venture away from GraphQL usage and towards RESTful endpoints, which aligned us closer to the other Instagram applications
It was the only area of the website that relied on real-time communication, and so was our first primary usage of MQTT.
It was the first area of the website to use encrypted push notifications, as well as our first major expansion of our existing ServiceWorker framework.

Considering the design decisions above, we made the architectural decision to separate data for Messaging away from the rest of the web application, which had the data being unified through an inefficient GraphQL and Redux combination.

This change resulted in :

An isolated Redux store that could be operated without needing data from the rest of the website.
This also led to an independent client-side caching architecture, allowing Messaging on Mobile Web to boot quickly from cache independent of the rest of the website.
Code that was very re-usable on both Mobile Web and Desktop. The website as a whole shares a lot of the underlying architecture between the two surfaces, but Messaging’s implementation strictly separated the models from the views allowing for its easy re-use in this project, and further projects down the line.

We launched Messaging on Mobile Web at the end of h2 2019. After the launch, we noticed that many users were trying to get around the mobile web restrictions to use the experience on Desktop. After seeing the success the application had on Mobile Web, Messaging on Desktop started off as a Hackathon project in 2019.

The project took the already-existing Instagram Messaging on Mobile Web and wrapped it in a container to frame it into a seamless desktop web experience. This, along with the data we received over multiple user research sessions, showed that Messaging on Desktop had the potential to find product market fit.

When building out the experience for desktop, we had to take into account the larger interfaces and the different needs of Desktop web users. Some of the major changes we made:

Improving the UX experience, from badging support and message flows to desktop-centric actions such as drag and drop images.
Adding key missing features such as Presence, Voice Messages, Permanent Camera Messages, Gallery Views
Support for Creator and Business accounts, and the handling of multiple inboxes
Changes to the way we handle caching, as Desktop web users expected a more up to date experience

Part II b): A/B Testing and shipping decision

We launched the test to 2% of the Instagram desktop web population. The main metrics that we were keen on monitoring was usage of the messaging product, as measured by the number of users who send at least a message per day and the overall number of messages they send across both the native apps and desktop web. The results exceeded our expectations, with increases in both of those metrics. We also had guardrail metrics to ensure that enabling Instagram Messaging on desktop would have no negative effect on the usage of our native apps. The only regression we observed was in the usage of Messaging on the mobile web. We believe that some of the loss was organic since users now had one more option to choose from if they couldn’t access their native app. But some of these lost mobile web users were artificial, because we know that many users were using third party extensions and tools to disguise their desktop web browser as a mobile web browser in order to get access to Messaging (since Messaging was available on mobile web before it was available on desktop web).

Part III: Why desktop web features are more relevant than ever.

2020 has been an unprecedented year. The global pandemic has pushed the world into remote working and learning, which, along with social distancing measures, forced people to spend an increased amount of their time online. Because of this, products like Instagram Messaging and Instagram Live, became even more important in helping people stay connected with the people and things they love. It was important that we enable users to access those products from their desktop computers.

Across Instagram’s three main interfaces (native apps, mobile web and desktop web), desktop web was the one that grew (percentage wise) the most during the pandemic.

Enabling users to feel closer to the people and things they love is at the core of what we do. Instagram Messaging allowed more users to do so during a time when we needed to connect more than ever.

If this work sounds interesting to you, we’re always hiring! Please visit ourcareers page, follow us onFacebook or onTwitter.

This project has been a joint effort of engineering, product management, user research, data science and more. Big thanks to Judy Mai & Tyler Truong from engineering who actually built the product, Adam Kopec who designed it, Amir Shaikh & David Ressler who made sure that all the processes had been followed for the product to go live, Kenzie Snyder & Jeff LaFlam from user research whose work gave us an in-depth understanding of what users are looking for in an Instagram web experience, and Evelyn Tong & Peter Jalbert for continued growth and data engineering support. Big thanks also to Mario Estrada and Tony Pan who built a lot of the Messaging product on mobile web. Finally, big thanks to everyone from the entire ecosystem that made sure this product launched with all the user-safety and integrity features to ensure a pleasant experience for all our users.

Special thanks to Farhan Ahmed, Kiro Risk and Ryan Peterman for their help with early drafts of this post.

Yorgos Askalidis is a Data Scientist working with the Instagram Interfaces team, currently focusing on the strategy for improving Instagram’s web surface.

Tyler Truong is a Software Engineer on the Instagram Web team, leading the Direct and Notifications effort, and currently working on modernizing Instagram’s web surface.

#DESIGN
#PRODUCT
#ENGINEERING
#ANNOUNCEMENTS
Crafting an Accessible Instagram Feed
#INSTAGRAM
#ANNOUNCEMENTS
Continuing to Keep Instagram Safe and Secure
#PRODUCT
#ANNOUNCEMENTS
More ways to connect on Instagram

Instagram Voice Messages - Send, Listen, Delete

Content

How Voice Messages Work
- Send Instagram Voice Messages
- Listen to Voice Messages
- Delete Voice Message - Can I download a voice message?
Voice messages on the computer
Errors related to voice messages
- Voice messages cannot be heard
- Voice messages cannot be sent

In December 2018, Instagram launched voice messages in test mode. Now this function has successfully taken root and is available to every user of the social network. Not surprisingly, communication has become much easier and more convenient.

Now, instead of a long message typing, it is enough to pinch the microphone icon with your finger. Let's take a closer look at voice messages and how to work with them.

How voice messages work

It's worth mentioning right away that the length of voice messages on Instagram is limited. The message is sent immediately after recording. nine0003

An interesting fact - you can add animations, images or stickers to the audio

You can communicate with voice messages both in personal and group chats. However, for those who are used to talking in messengers, at first it is unusual. The fact is that Instagram shows unread messages in blue, and read messages in black.

Sending voice messages to Instagram

There are two ways to do this. Let's talk about each of them.

Method #1. You need to go to direct and go to chat with the person you want to record a voice message. Then just press and hold the "Microphone" icon. nine0003 Microphone icon - record audio message

Record audio and release the microphone icon.

Trash icon - delete audio message, up arrow - send message

Please note that the message will automatically be sent to the recipient. You can't listen to the recording before.

Method number 2. A more convenient way is to hold down the microphone button and pull your finger up. After that, a lock icon will appear on the screen.

Lock icon - hands-free mode

You can now remove your finger and write a message safely. To send, click on the arrow icon. nine0003

This "hands free" method is useful for long messages or when it is not possible to keep your finger on the button all the time. For example, while driving. Automatic recording will not distract from the road.

Listening to voice messages

Listening to a voice message is even easier than recording it.

To listen to the voting message:

Enter Direct (the "airplane" icon in the upper right corner).
Open a dialogue with the user who sent you a voice message. nine0006
Click on the "Play" icon in the audio message.

☝️ An important point - you do not need to hold the message, just click on it once, and the message will start playing. You can stop playing the audio message at any time by clicking on it again.

"play" button - listen to a voice message

To rewind, turn on the playback of the message, and then, moving your finger over its contents, roll it back or forward (left and right, respectively).

👂 Some instant messengers have this feature: you put your ear to the phone, and after that the message starts playing automatically, without any pressing. On Instagram it works differently. As soon as you put your ear to the smartphone, not an audio message will start playing, but a recording of your answer (the microphone will be activated). That is, by putting your ear to the phone, you can record your voice message, and not listen to the message of the interlocutor.

💡 Life hack: Sometimes you really need to listen to a message without the interlocutor knowing about it. But as soon as you enter the chat, he will display "read", and you can no longer say that you have not seen his messages. There is a trick to this case. As soon as you received a message from a person:

enter his page by entering a nickname in the search box;
click on the "…" in the upper right corner and select "Restrict Access";
confirm the action.

Now update the dialog feed in the direct (by dragging the screen down). The dialog will move to the "Requests" folder. We go there, open the dialogue, listen to the audio message. Done, you listened to the message, and your interlocutor did not know about it. Do not forget to remove the restrictions from his page: go to the page, click "…", select "do not limit". nine0003

Deleting a message

You can delete a voice message immediately after it has been sent. To do this, simply click on the message itself and hold for a couple of seconds. Next, you will see a menu in which you need to select "Cancel sending message."

The "Unsend message" button will delete the audio message from both the sender and the recipient.

Confirm the deletion. Of course, you can cancel the voice only until the interlocutor has opened it.

Please note: the interlocutor may receive information about deleting the message

Can I download a voice message?

Unfortunately, saving voice messages is not provided by the official Instagram functionality 😟. If this is possible to do, then only with the help of various tricks and tricks. One of them is to view the element's code.

Voice messages on the computer

You can get unavailable functions using the emulator. You can find many of them on the Internet. But not all of them are reliable. Some do not work well enough, while others will bring viruses to the computer. To prevent this from happening, you need to download only reliable and proven emulators. Which? Read below. nine0003

Instagram for Windows 10 is a specially released app for Windows. With it, you can:

read and send messages (including voice messages) via the built-in messenger. You don't need to download it separately;
delete or edit your earlier posts;
comment on your own or other people's posts;
repost.

The application has wide functionality, almost the same as the mobile version. The only exception is the publication of photographs. nine0003

The first step in downloading the app is to go to the Microsoft Store. If you do not know how to do this: just enter the name in the search on your computer through the Start menu. Then, in the store search, enter "instagram". The first app that pops up is exactly what you need.

It remains only to download and run. Then simply register or enter your existing username and password.

Perhaps the main disadvantage of the application is its outdated design. But that's not such a big price to pay for free access to the useful features of the phone version of Instagram. nine0003

If your computer does not have Windows 10, but another operating system, then you will not be able to download the application to it. In this case, we recommend using an Android emulator. One of them is BlueStacks.

Bluestacks is an Android emulator.

By the way, by downloading this application, you will get access not only to the mobile version of Instagram, but also to other mobile applications. For example, your favorite games or readers.

To download, you need to go to the official website of the application. Then everything is simple: click on the big green button and download. After that, the installation will begin. It usually takes a little time. After installation is complete, launch the program. nine0003

Please note that the first launch may take up to 5 minutes depending on the performance of your computer.

In the process of using the application, you will need to enter data from your Google Play account. When the program is finally installed, click on the new shortcut on the desktop. Enter "instagram" in the search and download the app. Done, now you can use the mobile version of the social network through your computer!

Errors related to voice messages

Voice messages cannot be heard

There are several reasons why voice messages on Instagram are not playing:

No network connection. The most banal reason. If the message does not play, try opening any website in a browser. If it doesn't work, then you have a network problem. Try disconnecting and reconnecting to Wi-Fi, check if the Internet package on your mobile has been exhausted.
Sound off. Check if you just turned off the volume on your smartphone and that's why you can't hear the message. Another phone can be connected to a speaker, TV or headphones, and therefore you do not hear sound from the speaker. Try turning off Bluetooth and try again. nine0006
Updates not installed. Enter the app store and find Instagram there. If there is an “update” icon next to the application, click on it and wait until the application is updated. If this does not help, write about the problem to the social network support service.

Voice messages are not sent

Sometimes voice messages are not sent. The most common reason is an internet connection problem. Also, users often exceed the limits set by the social network. It is important to remember them, because if they are exceeded, the account can be blocked. Instagram limits are as follows:

50 messages per day for subscribers;
50 messages per day for other users;
10 messages per hour.

If everything is in order with the Internet connection, the limits are not exceeded, and messages still cannot be recorded or listened to, then check the phone itself. The problem might be a faulty microphone or speaker.

In case the problem persists, contact Instagram support. Depending on the workload, they can respond within one to two days. nine0003

* The Meta company, which owns the social networks Facebook (Facebook) and Instagram (Instagram), was recognized as an extremist organization by a court decision dated March 21, 2022 and banned in the Russian Federation.

What is it, where is it and how to write

Content

1 What is Direct (Direct)
- 1.1 Why do you need a Direct
- 1.2 Where is the Direct
2 How to go to direct on Instagram
4 What can be shared via direct

Direct is a service that has appeared on the social network Instagram over the past 3 years. With its help, you can carry out a lot of interesting actions. It helps to keep in touch with friends, as well as other Instagrammers.

Now there is not a single person who would not use social networks. Instagram is the most popular of them not only among teenagers, but also among the adult population of many countries of the world. This is a program for viewing multimedia and text posts, but due to numerous requests from people, the developers have added the ability to write a private message on Instagram. nine0003

What is direct

What is direct and why do people use this feature all the time? Direct Instagram is a kind of messenger that is used by people to exchange text or multimedia records. It does not need to be installed separately (as Facebook did for its messenger). Direct on Instagram is built-in and is displayed to both iOS and Android owners.

Each user manages their Instagram differently. For some, this is a way to share the brightest moments in life through photos or videos. For others, the account serves as a point of sale. Someone is registered on Instagram just to view interesting content, but he himself does not post anything. A personal profile is everyone’s business, and therefore Instagram is full of various pages. nine0003

But, like everywhere else, Instagrammers have a need to exchange SMS. And then the question arises “How to write on Instagram in direct?” It doesn't take much effort to send a message to Instagram. Direct on Instagram has a clear interface, instructions for use are provided for new users. But what is a direct on Instagram and how to manage it is clear on an intuitive level already during registration. The developers tried to make the program simple and convenient, so not only teenagers quickly navigate it. nine0003

Why direct is needed

We figured out what direct is on Instagram, now we need to find out what instagram direct does, why it was implemented. It was impossible to write a message on Instagram before, which made many people very upset. The developers have corrected this shortcoming and added a function for free correspondence. Instagram messages are sent only through it. Page owners can:

write text in instagram direct;
attach emoticons; nine0006
like received notifications;
share photos taken with your phone;
attach video files;
send publications;
link to pages.

By the way, for those who have an account on Instagram, it will be useful to know about one chip. You can send photos or videos to Instagram direct that are available for viewing only once. That is, it will not be possible to forward this message on Instagram or simply show it to an outsider. This option allows you not to worry about private files that you want to hide from unintended eyes. nine0003

What does it mean to write in direct on Instagram is quite clear. Now for the privacy issue. A personal is a correspondence between two people, so only two parties can view the chat in direct. If this is a group correspondence, then all its members. Messenger data is not visible to outsiders, but no one is immune from hacker attacks, so it is recommended not to send documents and other important information via direct on Instagram.

Promotion of goods and services is now carried out not only with the help of official websites, but mostly through Instagram, Vkontakte, Facebook, Tik-Tok, etc. Online stores, various communities, bloggers use chats to send information and collaborate. But it’s not always possible to see messages on Instagram from strangers. To do this, Instagram asks the account owner for permission. But still, direct messages on Instagram allow you to receive important information, so you should not block everyone at once. Plus it works the other way around too. You do not have to subscribe to the page of the online store to find out the price of the goods, it is enough to know how to write in direct and ask the seller a question privately. nine0003

Where is the direct

This is often of interest to beginners who are just immersing themselves in the world of Instagram, getting used to its features, striving to immediately add content and receive useful information. Before answering the question of where to look for direct, one thing needs to be noted. Direct on Instagram is available only from smartphones of any operating system. When working with a PC through a browser, you will not be able to write a personal message on Instagram, sending letters is not available. Therefore, it is useless to search for a direct message on a computer on a computer. The only way to get around this problem is to install an emulator. Through it, you can download programs, like from a phone. The interface and functionality will be familiar. As soon as the insta is installed through the playmarket, open the direct on instagram with the usual movements (but with the mouse, not the touch screen). nine0003

Now, where is the direct on instagram. It is built directly into insta. Therefore, initially you will need to open the application by clicking on the icon on the desktop. How to look at the direct on Instagram is extremely simple. It is visible immediately when the program starts. His sign is a paper airplane, located at the top right above the story. The owners of "apple" gadgets and androids have information about where messages on Instagram have not been changed. The appearance in this regard is no different, which is very good and simplifies the configuration. nine0003

How to go to direct on instagram

View notification on instagram, anyone can send it. The option is absolutely free and is activated simultaneously with the working application, no additional downloads are required. To start communication, you need to turn on the mobile Internet or connect to Wi-Fi, without this it will be impossible to receive and send an empty or filled message on Instagram. In the absence of access to the network web, the history shows only the dialogs already seen, updates are not displayed. nine0003

There are not many ways to get into direct on Instagram, follow the following simple algorithm:

Open the application on your smartphone.
Go to the newsfeed section (it is the first one to launch by default, but if you are in your profile, you will have to go to the feed manually).
In the upper right corner there will be a direct icon, it looks like an airplane (some people call it an arrow).
The way to open the direct is to click on the airplane.
All active chats are now displayed.

Instructions on how to find a direct on Instagram if you are using the emulator are exactly the same. How to open a direct on Instagram - enter the program, your profile and click the mouse once for the paper plane icon. The emulator does not change the appearance of applications, they are identical to smartphone programs.

One important point - if you were answered in direct, then on top of the plane, which will turn blue, there will be a white circle with a number. Do not be surprised what it means when you write in direct. As soon as the message is read, the circle will be removed. But with it, you will not forget that a new notification has arrived in the Instagram direct. nine0003

Another nuance that is obvious. The ability to exchange messages is available only when you log into your personal account. That is, an unregistered contingent will not be able to write emails.

How to write a direct message

Data exchange allows not only to learn something interesting, it often brings benefits, benefits. Most of the information we receive comes from acquaintances, so it is very important to constantly have a channel for communication. On Instagram, they have a special section. nine0003

What does it mean when you write in direct? You send any kind of SMS, whether printed or multimedia. How to write a message on Instagram depends on its content. To send a smiley, text or reply to a message, you need:

Sign in to the social network.
Go to the airplane section in the corner of the screen.
Select a friend from the list by activating him by pressing.
Print text on the bottom line.
Click on the send icon on the right. nine0006

This option is suitable if you are answered in direct and there is an active dialogue. Another thing is how to write a message without a direct message on Instagram:

Enter the page of the person, the store.
In the upper right corner, click on the three dots.
Select "Send a message" from the proposed list.
Enter text using the keyboard.

When you learn how to view a direct on Instagram, it will be easier to connect with people. And the two described options are not all. Since you can share posts on Instagram, you need to know how to write in direct so that a friend sees the post:0003

Find the right news in the feed.
There are a number of options below it, our paper plane icon, click on it.
Select the friend you want to share the recording with from the list.
Confirm the sending of the message, making sure the addressee is correct.

Keep in mind that of the sent messages on Instagram, only dialogues with friends are immediately visible. All the rest fall into the "Requests" section, it is located on the right when opening correspondence. You can click on it to view it, or leave it unread. nine0003

Speaking of reading SMS. How to read a message on Instagram is quite understandable - go to the messenger. Another point is how to know that a friend has read your letter. First activate your chat. If there is an eye under the last entry, then this indicates reading. In group chats, the name of the person who has already seen the SMS is shown at the same time.

Not all users know that Instagram has a limit on the number of direct messages. The limit of messages in the Instagram direct for people who are in your subscriptions is 100 per day, for strangers - 50 pieces. The good news is that there is no limit on direct messages to friends on Instagram. You can communicate with them without fear. Just remember that one SMS cannot contain more than 500 characters. nine0003

What can be shared via direct

It became clear how to send a message on Instagram to a friend so that your dialogue is not empty. We now describe what data can be sent. On Instagram you can send:

Photos and videos saved on your device.
Take photos and videos in real time.
Other people's posts (note that if the account is closed, a friend will have to subscribe to see the information).
Plain text with or without emoticons.
Links to profiles of instagrammers.
Current stories.
Reaction to stories in the form of emoticons.
Simply internet links opened through your existing browser.
Geolocation - a place marked on the map.
Voice notification (recorded online).

This list is quite extensive. Despite the fact that Instagram was conceived as a network for sharing images, it has now been adapted for many purposes. In the social network, you can learn something new, purchase goods, even take a master class or sign up for courses. But communication still remains a priority for people. One does not want to enjoy a cool video or admire a beautiful sunset.