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Instagram Direct launched. Send photos and videos direct to friends.

Instagram Direct launched. Send photos and videos direct to friends.
Jonathan Riggall

Jonathan Riggall

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Instagram, the Facebook owned photo and video sharing app, is launching Instagram Direct. This allows you to send photos or videos to specific friends, instead of publishing them for all your followers.

Instagram explains that now there’s a big developed community using the app, the company can see how users may want more control over who they share images with. Some maybe for everyone, but you might also have in-jokes or photos that will mean something to just one friend. That’s now possible.

You can receive photos and videos from people you don’t follow, but they will appear in your request notifications, so you can decide to accept or not. The same is true if you send a message to someone you don’t follow.

You now get notification when a friend sees your Instagram Direct photo or video.

Prior to the event, there was speculation that Instagram might be moving into physical printing or ‘ephemeral messaging’ like SnapChat. Neither is true, as we see Instagram trying to make its service more personal. Instagram Direct is also a smart way to get you to use Instagram more – you’re likely to make the same amount of public posts, and additionally use Direct.

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Instagram Direct is available now on iOS and Android, and available in the Instagram beta for Windows Phone.

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