Ever wished you could private message someone on Instagram? Well, you still can’t do it with the Instagram app, but you can with the instaDM iOS app.
There are browser-based third party apps like Statigr.am that allow you to send private messages to Instagrammers, but they’d have to: 1) use Statigr.am and 2) Log in to see a notification. instaDM is one step closer as it’s mobile based and allows you to real time, private chat with others who also use the app. How do you get others to use the app? Through self promotion, of course. Not a bad little marketing concept on the part of the developers. By clicking the “people” profile in the upper right hand corner you can select “promote my profile” like this:
How do you use the app? After downloading the app, search (by username or full name) Instagram users you’d like to direct message. You’ll first have to see if they have the app, otherwise it’s a no go. The app will show any user you search, even if they’re not currently using the app. So don’t get too excited. It does take a few minutes to get comfortable using the app as it’s not entirely intuitive. If you don’t want to search by user, you can go the promotion route like I did (above) and let people reach out to you.
Once you connect with a user, your conversation will appear as so:
You have the option to view your chat screen or a home screen, of sorts, where you can look at users you’re connected with and either view their recent IG photos or go directly to their IG account (it does not support in-app comment or likes).
When a new message comes through you will get a notification in the app icon, even if you’re not in the app.
A suggestion to the reviewers: It would be great if you could private message photos to other users. Why? There are lots of photo challenges and such that begin with an information/text-based photo. Instead of users having to screenshot the photo, crop it, resave it and repost, the original poster could send it to others. (Suggested by @prestonlogan)
So, if direct messaging on Instagram is important to you, instaDM is made for you.
