Instagram has at least introduced a key feature from their mobile app to their desktop version; “DMs” or Direct Messages. The company has been trialing the feature since January and even though it’s not available for all users just yet, the feature’s introduction has been significantly cranked up.
Who will benefit?
The introduction of the direct message feature to desktop will greatly benefit brands, influencers, social campaign managers, and other users who regularly rely on direct messaging.
What will you be able to do?
Users will be able to start individual conversations and group chats, send and read messages, share photos, and react to messages (i.e. ‘double tap’).
This means you’ll be able to holistically manage and carry out all your IG activities from the comfort of your desktop now, including creating posts via Creator Studio.
What won’t you be able to do?
Video chat still won’t be available on desktop, which is available now on the mobile application.
Zooming out
Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, has been making a few moves when it comes to private messaging recently. Just last week they introduced a desktop app for Messenger and DMs for desktop comes in the wake of ‘Threads’, a standalone app for Instagram users to share photos and messages with their Close Friends list.
Similarly, WhatsApp has been available on desktop for quite some time. It’s interesting to observe what their overall strategy might be here because you could argue it a few different ways.
What’s the thinking?
On one hand, you could say that rolling out similar features for all the products on multiple channels is in danger of homogenizing their offering of their portfolio (i.e. Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram).
Conversely though, perhaps the thinking is that they want to simply offer each user their preferred method of engagement and usage, while being comfortable that each platform already has a strong, unique target audience.
Bottom line
This is a feature that many have been wondering about for a long time, myself included. Now that it’s here, what do you think? Would you be more comfortable managing DMs on desktop?
