Instagram allows you to communicate publicly and privately with followers, mutuals, and other Instagram users. That includes sending private messages to anyone.
You don't need to follow or be followed by that user to use the app's private messaging feature, and no one can see these messages except the recipients.
Not only can you send text and images to someone, but you can send a message to multiple people at once.
Here's how to message someone privately on Instagram.
1. Start the Instagram app on your mobile device and then swipe to the left from the Home screen or tap the paper airplane icon in the top-right corner.
2. Tap the New Message icon at the top right of the screen.
The New Message icon is in the top right next to the Video Chat icon. Dave Johnson/Business Insider3.
Add each person you want to send the message to. You can select one Instagram user or add multiple recipients.
4. Tap "Chat" at the top right of the screen.
5. Enter the message, add an image, audio, video, or Giphy.
Write your message, add media, and then tap "Send." Dave Johnson/Business Insider6.
When you're done, tap "Send."
1. In the Instagram app, find and open the profile page of the person you want to message.
2. Tap "Message."
Use the "Message" button on a user's profile page to communicate with them. Dave Johnson/Business Insider3. Enter the message and add an image, video, audio, or Giphy if you want.
4. When you're ready to send it, tap "Send."
Dave Johnson
Freelance Writer
Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life.
Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider.
Read moreRead less
Insider Inc. receives a commission when you buy through our links.
By: Jenn Herman and Corey Walker and Eric Butow and
Updated: 12-12-2019
From The Book: Instagram For Dummies
Explore Book Buy On Amazon
Instagram offers so many options for interacting with others.
One way you can do with is with direct messaging. Sending direct messages on Instagram lets you engage with others without laying out everything for public eyes. Keep reading to discover how to send a direct message on Instagram.If you want to start your conversation with a text message, Instagram makes it easy for you. Follow these steps:
The Instagram Direct icon is located at the top right of your home screen.
This is also where you receive new messages. A red circle with the number of messages waiting for you is shown on top of the Direct icon. Your new messages are revealed when you tap the number.
Create a new message by tapping the + at the upper right of your screen.
The New Message screen appears.
The New Message page allows you to select message recipients.
A blue check mark appears to the right of each recipient name after you tap or click it. You can also search for one or more recipients.
Type a new message in the Message screen at the bottom of the page.
The message you just sent appears at the top of the list. Each message entry in the list shows you the recipient’s or group’s name, followed by whether the recipient is active now, or when they were last active.
View your message on the screen by tapping the message entry.
You can unsend a message by holding down on the message. Then tap Unsend (iPhone) or Unsend Message (Android) to unsend it. The message has now been erased from the conversation (but it may have been seen if the contact is quick to read messages!).
The Camera link is at the bottom of the main Instagram Direct page.
If you need to get to the Direct screen, first tap or click the Direct icon from the Instagram home screen or window.
Tap (for photos) or hold (for videos) the white button to take a photo or video.
The switch cameras icon appears to the right of the white button so you can switch between the front and rear cameras, if necessary. If you’re unhappy with what you shot, tap the X to delete the photo or video and try again.
Add text to your photo by tapping the Aa.
Photos and videos here have all the same custom capabilities as they do in Instagram stories.
The photo is sent right away and a blue bar that says Done appears at the bottom of the screen. You can also send your photo to be shown on your Instagram story or to your Close Friends Only list.
Choose your message recipients by tapping Send or share on your story or with close friends by tapping Share.
You can search for a recipient by tapping the Search box above the list and typing your search terms. As you type, the usernames that most closely match your terms appear in the results list. When you find the name of the recipients you’re looking for, tap or click their names in the list.
The Direct screen appears and contains the message you sent to the recipient at the top of the conversation list.
If you had a previous conversation with the contact, the old message thread appears. Otherwise, you’ll see a blank screen with the contact’s name at the top and a message bar at the bottom.
The switch cameras icon appears to the right of the white button so you can switch between the front and rear cameras, if necessary. If you’re unhappy with what you shot, tap the X to delete the photo or video and try again.
If you’d rather use a photo or video you took previously, you can choose one from your camera roll by tapping the small square at the lower left of the camera screen and choosing the photo/video by tapping it. You can also choose multiple photos/videos at once by tapping Select Multiple, tapping each thumbnail you want, and tapping Next at the bottom of the screen.
Choose photos or videos you’ve taken previously by tapping the small square at the lower left of the Camera screen.
Type your message, and then tap Done.Photos and videos here have all the same custom capabilities as they do in Instagram stories.
hoose how you would like your message to be viewed.
View Once allows one view and then it disappears. Allow Replay allows one view and one replay, then it disappears. Keep In Chat keeps the photo or video in the message thread indefinitely.
You can also choose the Send to Others button if you want to send to your Instagram story, close friends only, or other contacts.
Jenn Herman, a social media consultant and world-renowned Instagram expert, pens a top-rated social media blog, Jenn's Trends.
Corey Walker offers social media strategy, content, ad management, and analytics focused on Instagram and Facebook.
Eric Butow provides website design, online marketing, and technical documentation services to businesses.
Jenn Herman, a social media consultant and world-renowned Instagram expert, pens a top-rated social media blog, Jenn's Trends.
Corey Walker offers social media strategy, content, ad management, and analytics focused on Instagram and Facebook.
Eric Butow provides website design, online marketing, and technical documentation services to businesses.
John Sonmez is a software developer and the author of two best-selling books, The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide and Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual. He is also the founder of the Simple Programmer blog and YouTube channel. Eric Butow is the owner of Butow Communications Group (BCG), which offers website design, online marketing, and technical documentation services for businesses.
He is the author of 32 computer and user experience books.
Help Center
Instagram features
Direct messaging
In Instagram Direct, you can send messages, photos, and videos to one person or a group of people. These messages do not appear in the feed, search results, or your profile.
Send chat messages
Instagram app for Android and iPhone
Tap the or icon in the top right corner of the feed.
Click on the top right corner of the screen.
Select the people you want to send a message to and click Send in chat.
Enter a message. You can also tap to capture and share a disappearing photo or video, or to select a photo or video from your library.
Click Submit.
instagram.com in a browser on a mobile device
instagram.com in a browser on a computer
Instagram Lite app for Android
You can also send a message to the person you follow by going to their profile and clicking Send.
Links you send in a message are shown in the conversation along with an image preview. When sending an address or phone number, you can click on them in a conversation to open a map or make a call.
Note. The Instagram accounts you message to may use third-party apps or automated services to send messages to chats.
If you're having trouble sending a message to Instagram, try these steps.
Sending messages using commands
Commands allow you to use chat features when writing a message. Below is how to use them.
Instagram app for Android and iPhone
Tap Write message… at the bottom of the screen.
Here you can:
Enter the symbol / to open the list of function commands.
For example, the /silent command will allow you to send a message without sending a notification.
Enter the @ symbol to open a list of people who will receive the notification. For example, using the @[username] command, you can tag a chat participant in a message.
Select a team and write a message.
Click Submit.
Note. The mentions feature is only available in chats with at least 3 participants.
Was the article helpful?
Related articles
How do I send a profile in an Instagram Direct message?
Vacancies
Terms of use
Privacy
Making your page interesting and encouraging subscribers to visit your page or website more often for shopping
Regularly fresh posts
Get our book Social Media Content Marketing: How to get into the head of your followers and make them fall in love with your brand.
Subscribe to the newsletter and get a book as a gift!
Recently, Facebook, which owns the social network Instagram, has been developing not only a mobile application, but also an official web resource.
Previously, it was impossible to even just view publications. Today, users can use the site to perform most of the usual tasks: viewing photos, videos, and stories of friends, searching for people, viewing the "Recommended" section, the ability to subscribe to profiles, post content, like and write comments.
However, the site does not have all the features visitors are used to. It is used for emergencies when there is no access to the phone. For example, here you can not access personal correspondence and publish a story. Messages on Instagram from a computer are possible, but for this you need to resort to different tricks.
Speaking of messages, users most often mean leaving comments under posts and correspondence in Direct.
In mobile versions, Direct was not always available, but appeared in Instagram versions from 5.0 and higher.
When wondering how to write a message on Instagram from a computer, you should remember that there is no direct section in which you can enter and view correspondence in the browser version. However, you can deliver short messages through comments. To do this, you don’t even need to be subscribed to the person who is the addressee of the message (provided that the profile is open). The Instagram website is accessible in any browser.
Comment sent. Of course, other users will see it - this option for sending messages on Instagram from a computer is not suitable for personal intimate correspondence.
If a person wants to correspond with a PC in a private chat, as in an application on a smartphone, then he will not be able to do this on the site due to the lack of the function itself. You can write messages on Instagram through a computer only when you install a minimalistic desktop client from the Store on the Windows operating system. The user can select one of the following options:
To install the official application, you need to open the "Store" section located on the PC. This requires an internet connection. In the window that opens, you need to drive the name of the client into the search and click on the "Install" button.
After downloading, Instagram will be available for use: you need to open it and log in. This app has all the features of a smartphone.
After installation and authorization in the application installed on the PC, a tab will automatically appear on the screen. It will show the news feed. With it, you can see the publications of friends, recommended profiles, write comments and put likes. To go to Direct to send messages to Instagram via a computer, you should click on the button in the form of an icon with an airplane.
All conversations are saved here, even those from the phone. If there has already been a correspondence, you need to touch the corresponding chat or create a new dialogue by selecting a person from the list and clicking the "New dialogue" button.
When selecting an interlocutor, you can mark several at once. This is done in the "To" column. At the same time, a feature of the computer version is the fact that in this way you can send messages on Instagram not only to people from the list of subscriptions, but also to those whose profile is closed. In this case, you need to find the page of interest by starting to enter a nickname in the search field. The system will return all matches. After selecting the desired option from the proposed list, start typing.
If the official program on the PC does not work for some reason (the operating system is Windows 7 and below), but you need to view the Instagram dialogs through the computer, a shareware program for launching Android applications can help. It's called BlueStacks App Player. Download BlueStacks from the official website.
It can then be used normally. The BlueStacks emulator is free. Its main advantage is the ability to use programs from the Android operating system for smartphones on a PC. Naturally, some functions and interface differ from the mobile version, however, all the main advantages of the social network are preserved - the ability to view and publish content, write comments, etc.
Another plus is the ability to use the keyboard and computer mouse, as well as setting up notifications: if an email arrives, the user will be notified (BlueStacks runs in the background).
Watching messages on Instagram through a computer is a pretty handy feature. It allows you to conduct private conversations in Direct: send text messages, photos and videos, or organize a group chat.
Regardless of which method of accessing Direct was chosen (the official application for PC with OC version Windows 8 and higher or the third-party simulator BlueStacks App Player), read and send messages to Instagram only one scenario is possible through a computer:
