Instagram hits the copy button again as new instant photos disappear

Instagram is once again competing with rivals like Snapchat and BeReal with a new photo-sharing format It’s called “Moments” They are fleeting images that you cannot edit and you can only share them with your close friends or followers who follow you. Instant messaging is available globally starting Wednesday as a feature in the Instagram inbox and as a separate app now in testing in select countries.

To access instant messages from the Instagram app, go to your DM inbox and look in the bottom right corner for an icon or group of images. After you post a photo, your friends can interact with it and reply to your direct messages, but after they see it, the photo disappears for them. Immediate moments also disappear After 24 hoursand cannot be captured in screenshots or screen recordings.

However, your Instant Moments will remain archived for up to a year, and you can reshare them as a summary of your Instagram Stories if you wish. You can also undo sending an instant message right after it’s been posted or deleted from your archive.

Instants mobile app, which has appeared in Italy and Spain In AprilIt gives you “instant access to your camera,” Instagram says, and only requires an Instagram account. “Moments you share on the separate app will appear to friends on Instagram and vice versa. We’re testing this separate app to see how our community uses it, and we’ll continue to develop it as we learn more.”

In its testing, Instagram has noted that people “tend to use instant messaging to share more casual, more real moments about their day.” According to Instagram head Adam Mosseri. “And we know that this kind of sharing personal moments with friends is a key part of what makes Instagram Instagram, but we also know that a lot of people don’t share as much in their profile networks anymore.”