Your Instagram DMs Are Getting an Upgrade

Instagram DMs were never meant to be a main form of communication, but for some of us, they might as well be WhatsApp. What started as an easy way to share posts with other Instagram users became a go-to way to message friends, even when a post or reel has nothing to do with it.

But Instagram DMs aren’t WhatsApp, or Facebook Messenger, or Apple’s Messages app for that matter. As such, it hasn’t received the same attention as dedicated chat apps, so it’s missing many features you’ve come to expect when messaging friends. But many of those missing features eventually make their way to Insta DMs. Meta is adding four such features to messaging on Instagram now.

You can finally edit your messages

When you send a message in one of Meta’s other chat apps, like WhatsApp or Messenger, you have the option to edit it if the words didn’t come out the way you meant them to. Not so much with Instagram: While you can delete messages, editing hasn’t been a thing on the platform until now.

With Meta’s update, you can now edit your Instagram messages for up to 15 minutes after sending them. Just long press on the message, choose Edit, then make your changes before hitting Done to lock them in.

You can pin chats to the top of the list

This feature isn’t quite standard yet, but it’s still useful: In a future update, you’ll be able to pin up to three chats to the top of your Instagram DM page. These chats will, at first, look like the three most recent threads in your DMs, but a tiny pin icon denotes that they’re pinned to the top. In that way, it’s not the best approach to the feature: Apple’s Messages makes it overtly clear which chats are pinned and which aren’t, for example.

Disable read receipts for all DMs

Back at the end of January, Instagram allowed us to disable read receipts. However, you had to do it on a chat-by-chat basis, which wasn’t ideal. Now, the app lets you disable read receipts for all chats, a much-needed improvement.

To do so, head to your account settings in the app, then go to Messages and story replies > Show read receipts. Now, just disable Read receipts.

Reply better

The next time you reply to a DM on Instagram, you may notice you have more options than ever to choose from. Going forward, you can add stickers, GIFs, videos, photos, and voice messages to an in-line reply.

Save your stickers

Stickers are having a moment. The customizable icons blew up in the mid 2010s, but seemed to decline in popularity following its peak. But in the last couple years, tech companies have been adding sticker functionality to their apps to make them better and easier to use.

All that to say: The next time you use a sticker you really like in an Instagram DM, press and hold on it, and you’ll be able to save it to the top of your sticker drawer for easy access in the future.

Additional chat themes

Chat themes are among the few reasons I can’t quit Meta platforms like Facebook Messenger and Instagram DMs. They make chats feel more fun and personal, so I welcome more theme options to Instagram. Meta says the latest include an Avatar: The Last Airbender theme, an animated Love theme, among “many more.”