
Introducing Instagram Direct - seaghost
http://blog.instagram.com/post/69789416311/instagram-direct
======
halcyondaze
Introducing Nothing New. All they did was copy half of Snapchat's
functionality and add the instagram ability to "edit" pictures. I don't get
the point of all of this stuff sometimes. Is this what super smart and savvy
people are working on in tech? Another way to send pictures to friends that
isn't text, fb messenger, snapchat, kik, whatsapp, etc?

Edit: I am really wondering if I'm missing something here with my above post,
not just trying to be a dick for no reason.

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kika
People are doing this too. It looks dumb, but inside there're lots of
interesting technical challenges.

Some of the awe inspiring breakthroughs are often extremely boring
technically. I started my career in the computational chemistry and was
looking over the shoulder of the guys doing some really bleeding etch research
on organic compounds simulation. Oh, man, do you know how boring it is for a
programmer? You're looking at the handwritten prototype of the research paper,
filled with quantum physics formulae and encode all this greek language into
FORTRAN-IV. Then you run it for a week and either go collecting Nobel prize or
finding bugs in your "program".

~~~
dopamean
Is it bleeding etch or bleeding edge? I cant keep up with stuff anymore.

~~~
kika
leading edge (marketing bs) -> bleeding edge -> bleeding etch. It's a very old
joke, I've read it in Dr. Dobbs sometime in mid-90s.

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terhechte
Does anybody know if they're planning on making this available via their third
party API?

I've checked the current API docs [1] as well as the Google Group [2] and the
StackOverflow Posts [3]. There's nothing mentioning it yet.

This would be an awesome feature to have available in third party apps, so
that one could have it in other chat clients apart from the official iPhone
app. Adium is one example, but there're probably even better solutions. After
all, one of the most annoying things about WhatsApp is that I _have_ to use my
phone to answer messages or read messages. It just feels stupid to tap away on
a small screen to send a digital message while I have a 27" screen and a full
keyboard right in front of me. That is something where iMessage and Facebook
messages are way better.

Also, there were, for quite some time, third party Instagram messaging
solutions [4], and I'm really happy that they're finally implementing this
straight into Instagram. Beforehand, you'd see people having discussions that
were bordering on being private by continuously posting comments to an image.
This happened all the time. Now these discussions can move into private space.

[1]
[http://instagram.com/developer/endpoints/](http://instagram.com/developer/endpoints/)

[2] [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/instagram-api-
develo...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/instagram-api-developers)

[3]
[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/instagram/](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/instagram/)

[4] [http://instamessage.net/](http://instamessage.net/)

~~~
gjulianm
I'm pretty sure they won't make it available. They still don't allow uploading
images to their service using an API, so I doubt they will allow to send
messages.

After the Twitter example, APIs are not attractive to these kind of startups.
If you give full capabilities to 3rd party developers, they're going to create
clients for other systems and the startup will lose control over its content
and how it's shown to users (ads).

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kevando
I think snapchat's timeout feature is a novelty that attracted users, but
people ultimately just want to send private messages to their friends. Not
everything needs to be broadcasted, and that's part of the OG instagram
userbase - people that wanted an alternative to the facebook feed.

What's wrong with texting though? My friends and I have been texting and group
texting images and short video for years. Why do people like having an app for
this?

~~~
marksbren
Snapchat's timeout feature is not just a novelty, is it allowing for a whole
different type of digital communication. The sender does not have to worry
about where their image might show up. It frees people to take goofy photos
and act more naturally (as opposed to all the posed, staged shots on Instagram
and Facebook).

~~~
angryasian
I don't know why this misconception keeps getting propogated. If the
motivation to save pictures is there then a person will save the pictures. I
have to believe it's the fad. I mean poke had this same feature yet it never
took off

~~~
triptychs
> If the motivation to save pictures is there then a person will save the
> pictures.

Considering most "snaps" are sent between friends and family these days, it's
important to understand that friends aren't fucking each other over to save
pictures of cats with finger-painted mustaches.

Of course, if someone is dead-set on saving a picture from Snapchat then it's
possible... but Snapchat isn't about sending dick pics anymore. I believe it's
outgrown that, the same way when Vine started with was essentially an amateur
porn broadcasting app. For the general public, Snapchat images appear and then
they go poof, but I agree with you... it's hard to stop dicks from being dicks
no matter how you send your photos.

But the one objective fact about the situation is that Snapchat is still the
most convenient way to send photos and videos that are reasonably guaranteed
to virtually disappear. Saving them out of Snapchat secretly isn't a priority
nor is it trivial for 99% of people using the service.

~~~
angryasian
the point is that assumption should always be made that anything you share on
any service will be saved our available. I have to believe it's more the fad
and brand vs this false sense of security

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smoorman1024
Reasons to continue using Snapchat.

1\. They are the brand that reinvented the sharing model. They are more likely
to stick to their core values 2\. Facebook/Instagram can use the information
about who you send to to expand their already vast profile of you. 3\. Based
on Snapchats word, your images are truly deleted from their servers after
they've been viewed.

That said, I'll be testing out Instagram direct to see if it is truly a
superior product but I imagine if they think of something good Snapchat will
copy it and I will go back to my brand du jour.

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southpawgirl
"I am going to write an app that allows the user to send pictures to their
contacts!"

I guess one must have a fair bit of userbase karma + mystique to successfully
reinvent the wheel, to make a funnier-to-use wheel that actually gets used.

~~~
personlurking
Slightly related.

I don't really think we need social networks as they're now understood. About
10 years ago when MSN Messenger was popular, I had the idea of having an
interactive contact list for one's cell phone. One where I could see that my
friend is "in the shower, out in 10" or where I could send a picture to a
contact, etc.

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bluetidepro
I'm very interested to see how this goes against SnapChat. I think it could
either ruin SnapChat for good, or not make any impact at all because of the
fanbase loyalty to SnapChat. It will be interesting to see, that's for sure.

Also, I haven't seen a clear explanation on their implementation when you try
to "direct" someone that has not updated their app (don't have the Direct
feature) yet. Does it warn you, queue the Direct for when they finally do
update, doesn't let you use the feature with them at all, or what?

AFTER UPDATING: It looks like you guys are right, it allows you to send Direct
to people who have not updated, so I imagine it just queue's it for them.
Also, you cannot set expiration timers, and if you do a group message everyone
in the group can see who is in the group (both unlike SnapChat). So, it looks
like this will not probably not harm SnapChat at all.

~~~
rajbala
I don't think this will impact SnapChat at all.

I think people use SnapChat because it's a silo disconnected from Instagram,
Facebook, Twitter, etc.

~~~
rickyc091
Agreed, if anything, this seems to "compete" more with Kik Messaging.

~~~
mlyang
I think this will pretty substantively impact Snapchat's moderate to less
prolific users. Most people don't NEED their pictures to self-destruct, they
weren't that embarrassing in the first place. This however, allows for more
fun engagement after the initial picture sending and once users get a feel for
that, people would opt for this I believe.

~~~
thefallsman
I agree, I think it will, at least somewhat, impact snapchat because the
products are similar.

I'm sure that was the aim here, to create a product that took inspiration from
snapchat. Given that it's one of the most popular apps out there with an
insane amount of users, and we know that facebook already tried to buy it. I'm
sure they didn't want to copy it outright, but if they can integrate some of
it's features into their existing products, they may be able to steal some
users.

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cenhyperion
Instagram's beauty was its _simplicity._ You took photos, edited them, and
shared them with friends.

Post-facebook acquire they've introduced "features" that add very little to
the service, copy competitors, and degrade the overall experience of
Instagram.

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ojbyrne
Hipsters drive AMC Pacers these days? How not surprising:

[http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1...](http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1658545_1658533_1658042,00.html)

~~~
kayoone
wanted to say the same thing. Great product and good marketing and all, but
that video is so dripping of hipsterismn, they even have hipster cars in
there.

~~~
spiek
What is "hipsterism"?

~~~
heyitsnick
I guess you're being purposefully obtuse?

Hipster:
[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hipster](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hipster)

Ism: highly active and well-understood suffix that means, among other things:
"manner of action or behavior characteristic of a (specified) person or thing"
[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/-ism](http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/-ism)

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brianbreslin
Actually this might have a minor impact on kik. Lots of Instagram users use
kik to communicate, so this messaging tool could affect them more than
snapchat. Snapchat still has the decaying images feature as it's main selling
point,

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mlyang
This will have a huge impact on Snapchat, IMO. Instagram Direct allows you to
keep a conversation going with close friends, which is much more engaging and
fun. Snapchat does not allow for that. One of the reasons that I'm not as
prolific on Snapchat is that I just can't know what the hell I'm going to take
a picture of next in response to someone's Snapchat. This addresses that issue
by allowing just one picture to be the instigator for a conversation.
Obviously loyal Snapchat fans will still stay there but I think the less
prolific Snapchatters will opt to send a picture this way rather than thru
Snapchat.

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obilgic
Twitter DM vs Instagram Direct...

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smoorman1024
Versus Photostream!!!!! This is almost identical to Photostream which really
is an under-appreciated iPhone product.

~~~
antihero
Interesting, I've not heard of this. How do I get started with this? (I'm
using Android).

~~~
smoorman1024
Well that's the downside. But honestly I'm not going to sympathize very much
because over 80% of my friends have iPhones and I am already biased to sending
messages to them because iMessage and Photostream are such good products.

On another point unrelated to this thread Apple and Google really should work
together to develop a single messaging and sharing API hosted from either of
their clouds.

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cwe
Everyone is comparing this to Snapchat or Twitter, but what about FB
Messenger? Competing with another Facebook entity, but I guess FB wins either
way now?

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state
Does anyone use the shared photostreams in iOS 7?

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ddoolin
I do. Quite often, actually. Seriously the best way to share albums if both
parties are on iOS. The only downside is it can definitely take up space as
the device stores a copy of each image from each stream.

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saltyknuckles
queue the mandatory hipster video ...

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fro
The best thing about this update might be that we finally get pull-to-refresh
on the home feed.

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jkkorn
Where is Twitter with Vine Direct?

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ts330
it's coming. soon.

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elwell
so if facebook can't buy snapchat for 3 billion they'll just make their own

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skeletonjelly
I suppose they already have the userbase. And it's not like there's much
effort in copying a simple flow like Snapchat has. I'm pretty sure they (SC)
have a patent on an app that goes straight to camera, amongst others though.
Crazy.

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ahassan
So it's kinda like Snapchat, except your images can be viewed forever?

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arsemouflon
Thanks but no thanks. I'll just keep tweeting those pics of my arse.

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mikelbring
Had to double check to make sure I wasn't on The Onion.

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constantinum
did any one notice this "Instagram for Android version 5.0 is available today
on Google Play." Android 5.0 ??

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drcube
"Instagram for Android" is the name of the app, the version is now 5.0.

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techaddict009
Will this create an impact on WhatsApp ?

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presty
the blog's hosted on tumblr? hm..

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salient
The alternative was a Facebook Page, probably, so...

