How does instagram messaging work


How to Message Someone on Instagram and Chat Privately

  • You can message someone on Instagram through the platform's direct messaging feature, which lets you reach out to anyone with an Instagram account. 
  • Users don't need to follow you, nor do you need to follow them to message each other on Instagram.  
  • You can message someone by swiping left on the Home screen and then creating a new message or tapping "Message" on someone's profile page.  
  • Instagram messages allow you to add multiple recipients to send a message to several people at once. 
  • This story is part of Business Insider's Guide to Instagram.

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.

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How to message someone on Instagram from the app home screen

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 Insider

3. Add each person you want to send the message to. You can select one Instagram user or add multiple recipients. 

You can also add someone by searching for them using the Search field. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

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 Insider

6. When you're done, tap "Send."

How to message someone from their Instagram profile page

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 Insider

3. Enter the message and add an image, video, audio, or Giphy if you want. 

4. When you're ready to send it, tap "Send."

 

  • How to delete Instagram private messages, by deleting a conversation or unsending a message

  • How to make your Instagram private and hide your account from everyone except the followers you approve

  • How to delete a comment on Instagram from your computer or mobile device

  • How to tag someone in an Instagram post, story, or comment

  • How to post on Instagram from your phone or a computer, using the official app or an internet browser

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.

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Say 👋 to Messenger: Introducing New Messaging Features for Instagram

Meta

By Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, and Stan Chudnovsky, Head of Messenger

Today, we’re announcing an update to Instagram DMs by introducing a new Messenger experience on the app. Messaging has come a long way since we first brought it to Instagram. We’ve been exploring how messaging should evolve as we grow. On Facebook’s family of apps alone, people send more than 100 billion messages to their friends and family each day. These days, we rely on video calls to hang out with friends, send memes and GIFs to communicate what we really think (but can’t always say), and share funny photos and voice notes to stay in touch. 

People are communicating in private spaces now more than ever. More than a billion people already use Messenger as a place to share, hang out and express themselves with family and friends. That’s why we’re connecting the Messenger and Instagram experience to bring some of the best Messenger features to Instagram – so you have access to the best messaging experience, no matter which app you use. People on Instagram can decide whether to update immediately to this new experience.

In our research, four out of five people who use messaging apps in the US say that spending more time connecting with friends and family on these apps is important to them, yet one out of three people sometimes find it difficult to remember where to find a certain conversation thread. With this update, it will be even easier to stay connected without thinking about which app to use to reach your friends and family. 

We’re also adding more than 10 new features so you can stay close to your friends. Selfie stickers are a unique hybrid of Boomerang, emojis, and selfies – and a new way to react to conversations. Watch Together lets you watch trending videos with friends on IGTV during a video call. We’re also introducing vanish mode, where you can set messages to automatically disappear after they’re seen.

Messages and calls from friends and family using Instagram will stay in your Instagram app. The main change is that people using the Messenger app can now reach you on Instagram without you needing to download a new app, and vice versa. You can also control where you receive messages and calls, such as in your chats, in your message requests or not at all. 

The Best of Messenger

We’re also bringing familiar features from Messenger like replying to a specific message, forwarding a message, and customizable chat colors and themes. Every day, more than 10 million people customize their chat threads in Messenger with custom colors and nicknames. You’ll be able to use custom emoji reactions, and soon, message effects to put more emotion and visual flair behind your reactions and messages.

Over time, you’ll see even more fun ways to connect with friends and family. Some features such as custom emoji reactions and selfie stickers will be available on Instagram first and will come to Messenger soon after. 

Here are all the features coming soon to the new Messenger experience on Instagram: 

  • Communicate Across Apps: Seamlessly connect with friends and family across Instagram and Messenger by using either app to send messages and join video calls. 
  • Watch Together: Enjoy watching videos on Facebook Watch, IGTV, Reels (coming soon!), TV shows, movies, and more with friends and family during a video call.
  • Vanish Mode: Choose a mode where seen messages disappear after they’re seen or when you close the chat.  
  • Selfie Stickers: Create a series of boomerang stickers with your selfie to use in conversation.
  • Chat Colors: Personalize your chats with fun color gradients. 
  • Custom Emoji Reactions: Create a shortcut of your favorite emojis to react quickly to messages from friends.
  • Forwarding: Easily share great content with up to five friends or groups. 
  • Replies: Respond directly to a specific message in your chat and keep the conversation flowing.
  • Animated Message Effects: Add visual flair to your message with animated send effects.
  • Message Controls: Decide who can message you directly, and who can’t message you at all.
  • Enhanced Reporting and Blocking Updates: Now you can report full conversations in addition to single messages on Instagram, and receive proactive blocking suggestions across Instagram and Messenger when you add your accounts in the new Accounts Center.

Privacy and Safety

With this new update, you’ll have choice and controls to manage your privacy, including whether message requests go to your Chats list, your Message Requests folder, or whether you receive them at all. We offer tools for people to report suspicious activity, and take action to block someone across apps to stop unwanted messages and calls when something doesn’t feel right. You can learn more about your privacy here.

We’re rolling out these new features on Instagram and Messenger in a few countries around the world, and we’ll expand globally soon. This is only the start to making it easier to stay in touch with friends and family across our apps. Stay tuned for even more fun ways to connect in the future. 



Instagram Direct update, integration with Messenger

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In October 2020, Facebook merged Instagram and Messenger chats so that users of different apps can chat with each other without downloading. At the same time, Facebook and Instagram remained autonomous platforms, but with technical changes for integration with each other.

Merging chats of two social networks is not the only innovation. In Instagram Direct, you can now add animated stickers, change the colors of chats, send your reactions with any emoji. In addition, users were able to reply to messages by simply swiping their finger across the screen. nine0003

In this article, you will learn more about the changes to Instagram and get step-by-step instructions on how to use the new features.

Program for promotion on Instagram - SocialKit:

  • Collecting and filtering the target audience
  • Masslooking, massfollowing, massliking
  • Delayed posting of photos, videos and stories
  • Mailing in Direct, autoresponder

Registration >>>

Important: Delayed posting on Instagram

Integration options for Instagram Direct and Messenger

Let's take a look at all the changes in the functionality and appearance of Instagram. These include:

  • Increasing the size of Stories icons and changing the Direct icon to resemble the Facebook messenger icon.
  • The ability to change the color theme of the chat at will - more than 20 gradients and colors are available.
  • Use reactions with any emoji. nine0014
  • Long press to copy and delete text.
  • Privacy settings and convenient distribution of new messages into folders (into folders with a ban on receiving, chats, correspondence requests).
  • Ability to reply to a specific message.
  • Adding gif animations.
  • Correspondence with Facebook users.

New functionality will be available to you immediately after installing the latest version of Instagram - you just need to click on "Go" in the pop-up window. You can also update your messaging by going to your profile settings. nine0003

Integration management is provided in the settings; for this, the Account Center section has been added. Here you can manage cross-service features in the Instagram, Facebook and Messenger apps. This allows you to sync names and avatars, log in to your Facebook page through Instagram, and vice versa. And also share posts and Stories from Instagram to Facebook.

Article on the topic: How to set up an autoresponder in Direct Instagram

How to change the theme of the chat in Direct Instagram

To change the color of messages, do the following.

Open any chat and send a message. Click on the icon with "i" (open chat information).

Select the "Theme" item in the settings and set the option you like.

When you change the subject, a notification will appear in the chat.

Please note! At the moment, this feature is in the early stages of testing and is not available to all Instagram users. If you are unable to change the theme of the chat in Direct, update the app to the latest version and just wait. nine0003

Read also: Drawing up a content plan for Instagram: a guide for dummies

How to respond to messages in an original way in the update

From the end of October, you can send an emoticon to your interlocutor in a few touches without calling the corresponding menu on your smartphone.

Click on the text and hold your finger on it for a couple of seconds - a panel with emoticons will appear. To see all available emoji, click on the "+".

You can also reply to a chat message with animated stickers.

To do this, click on the plus next to the "Send a message" line.

Click on the Gif icon and select the appropriate animation.

Conclusion

Instagram developers have made big changes to the design and capabilities of Direct. As a result, it has become even more convenient and multifunctional. Facebook management promises that the changes will not end there. For example, in the near future it is planned to launch chat bots to automate communication on Instagram. nine0003

We recommend that you visit the SocialKit blog regularly to stay up to date with the latest updates on the social network!

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How to update the messenger on Instagram: new features of Direct

After a recent update, the built-in Instagram messenger has additional features. How to install a new update? Go to "Settings", select "Update Messaging". This time, the Instagram developers did not make an automatic upgrade, but allowed users to switch to an improved version of the messenger on their own, noting that the old version would not be available.

What's new:

- Instagram direct sync with Facebook messenger

- Additional "Like" reactions

- Change the design of Instagram chats

- Create a "selfie emoji"

- Reply to a specific phrase

Sync with Facebook

We couldn't help mentioning this feature for Facebook users. Merging the contacts of two built-in social media messengers sounds handy. Set up synchronization in the "Privacy" → "Messages" tab

And to combine instant messengers, social networks and other contacts for Instagram, create multiple links using Hipolink. nine0003

Additional reactions

Previously, a "like" on Instagram expressed several emotions on a message - agreement, laughter, gratitude. Now you can put any available emoticon reaction that reflects not only a positive attitude. Long press the desired message and select an emoji - the most frequently used emojis are displayed.

If they do not fit, the string is adjusted by pressing the plus sign. Send a one-time smiley response or change the entire line by clicking the "Customize" button under the search bar. nine0003

Changing the background, color of the messenger

Now you can change the color of message blocks and the general theme of Instagram chats. To do this:

- select the dialog

- click on the information icon "i" - upper right corner

- go to the "Themes" section

There is a choice between full background themes or a white background with different color blocks gradient)

The set appearance is saved only for the current chat. nine0003

Selfie emoticon

Instead of a sticker, send a photo with an emoticon from available emoticons to your interlocutor on Instagram.

— Click the sticker (sticker) icon on the text input line

— Click on the left in the opened "Selfie" window

— Take a photo boomerang, overlay the proposed emoji

— Send by pressing the "arrow"

Touch the camera area in front shooting to select an all-black, color image, or a black-and-white photo with a colored background. nine0003

Directed reply

A useful feature found in many instant messengers. Now in Instagram Direct you can reply to a specific phrase from their general stream - swipe from left to right on the text of the interlocutor.

Want to add something to your phrase - quote by swiping from right to left.

Answers to many questions in a row will be clear, and those who like to discuss everything will feel more comfortable talking at once.

After the above improvements of Instagram Direct, the transition to the new version is beyond doubt, especially since updating the built-in messenger is convenient and easy.


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