If we have to think about sending a private message we immediately think of very famous and used means such as Facebook Messenger, Twitter and Whatsapp; that allow you to exchange photos, videos, emoticons and private massages with friends and followers.

Also Instagram, a few years ago, it has introduced i Direct for private and fast communications between users; you don't know what are they and how do they work? We try to explain below what Direct is and how it works; it is a very simple tool to use, which competes with various instant messanging services and which could be what you were looking for to communicate with your friends.

Instant Direct, the functionality that was missing

Instant Direct launched in mid-2013; a functionality necessary to further promote the communication between followers, which allows you to send private photos and videos to one or more followers up to a maximum of fifteen at the same time.

Before this feature was introduced, it was only possible to share photos and videos on Instagram in public form with your followers. Thanks Direct was able to customize the mailings to suit your needs.

Direct have immediately proved to be very useful and appreciated by users, but how can they be used? To make invitations to parties and events, create small discussion groups around a moment or topic you want to keep private; it can be a great social media marketing tool to share offers, initiatives, rewards and promotions with some customers.

How does Direct work?

After explaining what are Direct, let's see how it is possible to send them with a few simple steps.

From Home click on the airplane symbol at the top right and you will have access to your contact list to which you can send a private message with a photo or video attached.

Click on the name of the person to write to, after entering the text, perhaps accompanying it with a photo uploaded from your gallery or taken at the moment, you have to press on"Send" and the Direct it will soon arrive at its destination.

The photos and videos sent can be temporary as happens for the stories, or, permanent, the Direct are managed in a single section.

Read private messages on Instagram

The procedure for sending messages is very simple, but also the one to read them is no less and is practically the same: from the small symbol of the airplane, in addition to sending messages, it is also possible to read them.

Within the section it is possible to see the messages sent and those received to reply to; in addition, a notification appears on your smartphone every time you receive a message.

Messages received from people you don't follow are placed in the section "Message requests", while all the others appear in the main window of received messages.

Is it possible to send a hashtag as a message with Instagram Direct?

Absolutely yes, to do it touch the hashtag you want to send, then touch the Direct icon at the top right; search for and select the person or group you want to send the hashtag to and press Send.

When you submit a hashta as a message, it will be displayed with a preview of the most popular posts from that hashtag page.

Send a feed post as a private message

As you scroll through the feed, you notice a post you want to send as a direct message to one or more contacts, what can you do?

• Tap the post you want to post
• Search for and select one or more people to send the post to
• Add any message
• Tap on Send.

The post can also be sent with a comment, to do so, you need to mention the accounts to which you want to send the post before the comment and tap on Send.

If you send a post from a private account as a message, only people following that account will be able to see the post, while the person who uploaded the post will not receive notifications.

How to send a temporary photo or video?

It's possible send temporary photos and videos as a group message or single message, after the temporary photo or video is opened, the message will no longer be visible in your mail unless you have allowed the message to be played.

To send them you need to touch at the top left of the screen or swipe right anywhere in the feed, you can also access your mail to reply to received messages.

Tap the circle at the bottom of the screen to take photos or videos, choose to add effects, if you send the photo or video from your Direct inbox, you can choose the options A view or Allow to replay, this last item allows you to loop the photo or video and allows the recipient to open and play the content once more before it disappears.

Touch at the top right, choose the person or people to send the content toFinally, tap on Send at the bottom of the screen to send the private message.