A new feature will be hitting the market for Instagram users, direct messaging through your desktop or personal computer. Right now, to use all of Instagram’s functions you are limited to using the app. Instagram plans to utilize other functions, possibly all in the near future, without app limitations. In the past, Instagram users found the desktop version almost useless, aside from scrolling, liking and commenting, there wasn’t much else you could do without the app.
Instagram will be testing the use of DM’s on your desktop. For Instagram marketers, this is great news! No longer do you have to switch between your phone or tablet, then back to your desktop when managing your other social media accounts. Instagram granting access to your DM’s on your desktop will be a big time-saver, putting everything you need in one central location.
Instagram posted an announcement to Twitter, keeping it simple and straight to the point by saying, “DMs, but make them desktop. We’re currently testing Direct messaging on the web, so you can read and reply to your messages from wherever you are.”
This will be the third time now that Instagram has opened this feature up for testing, the first being this time last year, then again this past October after some formatting updates were completed. The style of Instagram’s desktop direct messaging will be similar to Messenger, where the thread info moves, to become a sidebar.
The question was asked why they are prioritizing web direct messages over improvements to the iPad app, and the response was simply that they feel this is a better way for their users to make connections with the people they care about. To prove how important communication is to Instagram’s users, a study was conducted that showed private messaging, groups, and Stories were the three fastest-growing areas of online communication.
Not only is this great news for Instagram marketers, but this will also allow more access for internet users who cannot access this platform on the app. Instagram is making some great improvements and is becoming a more easily accessible social media platform for all of its users.
