Systrom said Instagram has more than 150 million users – up from 80 million at the start of this year – and more than half of them use it every day. Kevin Systrom is the co-founder and CEO of Instagram.
Instagram has stepped up its game in the present competitive market. The market keeps getting better with innovations and ideas as expected.
Instagram Introduces 'Instagram Direct'“From how you capture photos and videos to the way you start conversations through likes and comments, we built Instagram Direct to feel natural to the Instagram experience you already know.” Instagram
Before now, the only way to share content on Instagram was to post it to your feed, and these become visible to all who follow you or locked for people you approve the content to see.


Instagram said, “There are moments in our lives that we want to share, but that will be the most relevant only to a smaller group of people – an inside joke between friends captured on the go, a special family moment or even just one more photo of your new puppy. Instagram Direct helps you share these moments.
Instagram now allows it users to share photos and videos with up to 15 people rather than everyone who follow them on Facebook-owned photo-sharing app. The new feature is called Instagram Direct, this feature is available for Android and Apple Smarthphones.
“We built Instagram Direct to feel natural to the Instagram experience you already know. When you open Instagram, you’ll know see a new icon in the top right corner of your home feed. Tap it to open your inbox where you’ll see photos and videos that people have sent to you. To send a photo or video to specific people, tap the camera button to enter the same simplw photo or video capture and editing screens. At the top of the share screen, you’ll see the option to share with your followers (“Followers”) or to send to specific people (“Direct”). To send using Direct tap the names of the people you want to send your photo or video to, write your caption, tap “send” and you’re done.” Instagram
The Co founder and CEO of Instagram. Kevin Systrom says that marketers can potentially use the messaging feature to college images for contests. Less than two hours later, Gap did just that, soliciting comments on an Instagram post and messaging the first 15 commenters with a limited edition Gap product.Instagram Introduces 'Instagram Direct'
“When you look at Facebook’s wider strategy with new services and features, the first goal isn’t necessarily monetisation,” he said.
“It’s building on maintaining scale. With these new features, it’s about maintaining and growing the audience.” Kevin Systrom
Though analysts have raised eyebrows; doubt that Instagram direct messages have much potential for advertising. That is left to be answered.

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