Instagram is becoming very, very skilled at watching social media trends and finding ways to tailor what's popular to the app's own purposes. So it was with video, and so it is now with Instagram Direct, a new private messaging component.
The comparison between Direct and Snapchat is inevitable, because Instagram's parent company Facebook has been so obvious in its pursuit of the popular ephemeral messaging app. But Instagram Direct adds a much-needed layer of privacy to service, which has previously been all-or-nothing—you either shared everything publicly or everything privately, with nothing in between. Direct lets you send photos or videos to up to 15 of your friends at a time. You can see who likes the photos or comments on it, and groups of people can have conversations without the whole world seeing.
During a New York City event announcing Instagram Direct, CEO Kevin Systrom said Instagram has always been about photo-sharing as a form of communication—even if you're just posting photos of your food.
Kevin Systrom at the Instagram Direct launch event.
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