Instagram rolls out new messaging features and more

San Francisco: Meta-owned photo-sharing platform Instagram has announced that it is connecting the Messenger and Instagram experience to bring some of the best Messenger features to the photo-sharing platform.

The company said it is rolling out new features on Instagram and Messenger in a few countries around the world, and it will expand globally soon.

"We are announcing an update to Instagram DMs by introducing a new Messenger experience on the app. Messaging has come a long way since we first brought it to Instagram. We have been exploring how messaging should evolve as we grow," the company said in a blogpost.

"On Facebook's family of apps alone, people send more than 100 billion messages to their friends and family each day. These days, we rely on video calls to hang out with friends, send memes and GIFs to communicate what we really think (but can't always say), and share funny photos and voice notes to stay in touch," it added.

Instagram said in their research, four out of five people who use messaging apps in the US say that spending more time connecting with friends and family on these apps is important to them, yet one out of three people sometimes find it difficult to remember where to find a certain conversation thread.

"With this update, it will be even easier to stay connected without thinking about which app to use to reach your friends and family," the company said.

"We are also adding more than 10 new features so you can stay close to your friends. Selfie stickers are a unique hybrid of Boomerang, emojis, and selfies - and a new way to react to conversations. Watch Together lets you watch trending videos with friends on IGTV during a video call. We are also introducing vanish mode, where you can set messages to automatically disappear after they are seen," it added.

The company said it is also adding more than 10 new features so you can stay close to your friends.

Instagram is also bringing familiar features from Messenger like replying to a specific message, forwarding a message, and customisable chat colors and themes.