Instagram has announced the rollout of over a half dozen new messaging features for its direct message (DM) services. The update will bring the ability to reply to messages without opening DMs, share music previews in DMs, send a message silently, see who is online to chat with, and more. The update will be rolled out in select countries and will be gradually expanded to others.

Music sharing

With the latest update, Instagram will integrate Apple Music, Amazon Music and, soon, Spotify, to allow users to share 30-second song previews in DMs. This will allow friends to share new songs they like with their friends and help in music discovery.

Also read: Russians plan melancholy version of Instagram after ban

Reply while browsing

The updated app will allow users to reply to new messages while browsing their feed. When a new message is received the user will see a bar at the top with the option to reply to the message without having to go to the inbox.

Quick sending

Users can now simply tap and hold the share button on posts to quickly share posts with their closest four friends. Upon pressing and holding the share button, a tab will appear with the option to share the post with the four most frequently contacted friends.

Also read: Instagram launches two new chronological views features; here's how to use them

Status

In the new update, an online status will appear at the top of the DM inbox, where users can see who’s free to chat with, just like the Messenger.

Silent messages

Users can now opt to send messages to friends without bothering them. The silent message will not trigger a notification. It is handy to send messages to people who are busy or asleep. To send a silent message, users need to add ‘@silent’ to the message.

Also read: Now, you can pause & resume WhatsApp voice messages and play them outside chat window

Lo-fi chat theme

A new chat theme designed to make conversations feel more personal can be applied to the background of chats. These include sceneries like a cityscape scene with a cat.

Polls

Users can now use the poll sticker to quickly create a poll directly in the group chat to take quick opinions of friends.

These features were announced just a day after Meta announced a slew of updates for WhatsApp's voice messaging feature. Earlier, Meta also announced updates to the Messenger app showing that the company is on a roll, pushing out new features to enhance its messaging apps.

Also read: Meta reportedly paid political consultants to smear TikTok

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Apr 1, 2022 7:00 PM IST