Andrew Heinzman
Instagram is notorious for its smartphone-only philosophy. But the company just made a significant, much-needed leap into the future. As of today, all Instagram web users can send and receive DMs on their laptop, desktop, or tablet.
We first heard about this feature in January, when Instagram announced that a small percentage of users would gain access to web DMs. Essential features, like group chats, were often missing from these tests. And in my experience, testing was pretty sporadic, with web DM access disappearing every few days.
But in its full release, Instagram web DMs aren’t missing any major features. You can create a new group chat, send images to friends, check your “Message Requests,” and send DM replies to Stories. All that’s missing are voice and video calls, which is understandable.
As noted by The Verge, Mark Zuckerberg is currently obsessed with DMs, group chats, and Stories. Expanding Instagram access for web users is probably, in the Zuck’s eyes, a step toward a Facebook ecosystem where Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook users can message one-another across platforms, regardless of the device that they’re using.
I hate to cut things short, but there are a lot of memes saved to my iPad that I want to drop into the group chat. Cya later!
Source: Instagram
