Tag: dm

  • Instagram levels up DMs with live location sharing and nicknames for your friends

    Instagram levels up DMs with live location sharing and nicknames for your friends

    Instagram rolling out a few new features for Direct Messages that will make it easier to meet up with friends and family in real life. One of these is a new live location sharing feature. This means you can let others know exactly where you are for a set period of time, which is perfect for coordinating meetups at events or when you’re out and about.

    To share your live location, you just need to open a direct message with a friend or a group chat. From there, you can choose to share your live location for up to an hour. If you’d rather not share your live location constantly, you can also just drop a pin on the map to show people where you are.

    If you’re worried about accidentally leaving location sharing on, you don’t have to, because the feature is turned off by default and you have to choose to use it each time actively. Plus, Instagram has added a handy reminder at the top of the chat to let you know when you’re sharing your location. Additionally, to enhance privacy, you can only share your location with people you’re already connected with in a chat.

    In addition to location sharing, Instagram is rolling out a new feature that lets you create unique nicknames for your friends (and yourself) within your direct messages. It’s a fun way to personalize your chats and add some extra laughs. These nicknames are only visible within your DMs, so they won’t affect your actual username on Instagram.

    You will have complete control over your nicknames and can change them whenever you want, in addition to being able to decide who has permission to change your nickname in a chat —  whether it’s just you or the people you follow. To start using this, just head to the top of your chat and tap on the chat name, then select “Nicknames” and choose the person you want to give a nickname to.

    And if you’re a fan of stickers, Instagram has also added a bunch of new sticker packs to its DMs, giving you even more ways to express yourself. You can now also favorite stickers from your chats so you can easily reuse them later, and create your own stickers using the “cutouts” feature.

    I think the location-sharing feature is the most impactful feature from this update as it could be really useful for planning meetups with friends. It could also be helpful for letting people know you’re safe and on your way, especially if you’re traveling alone. I’m a little bit concerned about privacy, but it seems like Instagram has put some safeguards in place.  I guess we’ll have to see how it works in practice.

  • Instagram launches new DMs filtering options for creators

    Instagram launches new DMs filtering options for creators

    New changes are coming to Instagram creators these days. The social network announced over the weekend that a new set of tools that makes filtering direct messages much easier will be making its way to Instagram creators.

    Thanks to the new tools, messages will arrive in a user’s inbox based on the controls they have previously set. Specifically designed for Instagram creators, the new tools will add the ability to sort and filter message requests by follower count, verified accounts, brands, creators, and more.

    Besides the new filtering tools, Instagram also added a new “Story Replies” folder that makes it easier to access story replies by putting them into a single place. This is one of the changes requested by creators over the years, and it looks like Instagram has finally decided to listen to the feedback and deliver.

    Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s head, recently explained the new changes in a post: “Now when you go to the Requests inbox, sometimes it can be really overwhelming. So, what we’ve done is added ways to filter down those requests to just see the ones that you’re looking for. There’s a lot more to do to improve the inbox for creators and requests. But hopefully, this is one step in the right direction.

    Creators will find “Sort & Filter” options at the top of the inbox, where they will be able to choose to sort requests by date or number of followers the sender has. A few other options can be enabled/disabled to fit different scenarios that creators might have in mind, such as where or not the account is Verified or if it belongs to a creator/business.

    These are just some of the first major changes coming to the DMs portion of the app, but Instagram promised to continue to provide new features and improvements to this very important aspect of its app.

  • Instagram’s new feature puts an end to DM requests spamming

    Instagram’s new feature puts an end to DM requests spamming

    Instagram is finally adding one of the most requested features since it introduced the ability to send direct messages. A new update makes it possible for Instagram users to restrict who can send them DM requests.

    The new feature was tested last month and now it’s rolling out to all Instagram users. The first limitation introduced with the new feature prevents you from sending more than on DM request to a person who doesn’t follow you on Instagram. If they accept your request, then you will be able to continue to send them new DM requests.

    The second limitation is that DM invites can’t contain images, videos or voice notes, so you can send text-only DM requests to those who don’t follow you on Instagram.

    “We want people to feel confident and in control when they open their inbox. That’s why we’re testing new features that mean people can’t receive images, videos or multiple messages from someone they don’t follow, until they’ve accepted the request to chat. We’re grateful for the feedback we hear from our community — and we’ll keep listening to find ways to help everyone feel safer on Instagram.

    Apart from introducing these new limitations that basically remove DM requests spamming, Instagram also added a Restrict setting that makes it possible to monitor an account that you don’t want to block, but still want to restrict their presence on your Instagram page.

    Once you restrict an account, their comments on your posts will only be visible to them. More importantly, they won’t know that no one can see their posts, and their DMs will be automatically sent to your DM requests folder. It’s a middle-ground solution in case you don’t want to outright block an account, but still want some protection against bullying.

  • Twitter DM search feature expands from iOS to Android after almost two years

    Twitter DM search feature expands from iOS to Android after almost two years

    Given Twitter’s massive global popularity (yes, even after Donald Trump’s permanent suspension), you might expect the social networking service to at least support the same basic features as the competition if not offer something extra.

    But as if still not allowing users to edit their tweets after they’re published was not bad enough, Twitter also lacked a DM search functionality on Android until today. While that may not sound like such a big deal, it’s easy to understand if some of you were frustrated at having to wait nearly two years (!!!) for the iOS and web-exclusive feature to spread its wings.

    What’s happening at long last, according to a hot new Twitter Support announcement, and perhaps more importantly, the DM search option is set to expand to actual message content at some point “later this year.”

    That means you can only search your direct messages using the name of a person you remember having a private conversation with at the moment rather than the topic or certain words from said conversations.

    In other words, the feature is still nowhere near as convenient as its Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp counterpart (on either Android or iOS), but at least we know Twitter is working on making it better… a whopping 21 months after initially rolling it out to select mobile and desktop users.

    Naturally, it might take a little while for Android users around the world to see the DM search bar enabled on their handsets, but once that happens, we expect everything to be as simple and as hassle-free as the iPhone process demonstrated above.

  • Instagram no longer allows adults to send DMs to underage users

    Instagram no longer allows adults to send DMs to underage users

    Instagram is trying to make itself safer for a certain category of users. Lately, the social network introduced a set of features that limit interactions between Instagram users to protect their privacy. In that regard, the most recent changes announced by Instagram are meant to protect underage users from adults who don’t follow them.

    The new changes will prevent conversations between adults and teens who don’t follow one another. When an adult tries to send a message to a teen on Instagram who doesn’t follow them, they will receive a notification that DMing them isn’t an option.

    In addition to these changes, Instagram will implement prompts to encourage teens to be more careful in conversations with adults they’re already connected to. Instagram will notify teens when an adult who has been “exhibiting potentially suspicious behavior” is interacting with them via direct messages.

    These messages are usually sent to teens if an adult is sending a large amount of friend or message requests to people under 18, and they include various options like block, report, or restrict the adult in question.

    But that’s not all! Instagram announced that in the coming weeks it will make it even more difficult for adults who have been “exhibiting potentially suspicious behavior” to interact with underage Instagram users. Many of these changes will be implemented in some countries this month, but they will be available everywhere by the end of the year.