Photo sharing social network Instagram has today announced Instagram Direct, a service which enables users to send photos to groups of up to 15 people.
In a surprise event, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom announced the launch, which expands Instagram’s product portfolio and will be an add-on to the current app.
Users can only send photos and videos to people they follow and who follow them back, with a blog post on the official Instagram site explaining that these are for more intimate moments – “an inside joke between friends captured on the go, a special family moment or even just one more photo of your new puppy.”
Crucially, once a Direct photo has been sent, the users can then exchange text messages. This, of course, is where the comparisons to WhatsApp and Snapchat come in.
Yet it has to be mentioned that Instagram hasn’t launched a straight up messaging app today – users have to send a photo first.
The comparisons with Snapchat are certainly valid, given the ability for users to send pictures directly to other users – but Snapchat’s ability to delete photos is still the USP, so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about there.
WhatsApp therefore provides a more interesting analysis, although given the OTT app has taken the decision to move into voice operations as well, it again could be considered not direct competition.
Eden Zoller, principal analyst at Ovum, noted the increased competition and the importance of this move for Instagram.
“The new messaging feature for Instagram is a clear move by Facebook to keep users engaged with its photo sharing service, which is seeing increased competition on all fronts,” Zoller said.
“The injection of real-time communications into Instagram is a natural complement to the core photo sharing service, while the private groups feature will appeal to people that are either disenchanted with or wary of more open social broadcast platforms,” she added.
Systrom also mused over future plans, including potentially allowing users to curate groups based on communities, although as reported by Business Insider, while the service isn’t available yet Instagram intuitively learns who users share with most often, and puts them at the top of searches.
Last month, a report from Simply Measured revealed that Instagram had sky-rocketed in terms of brand adoption, with overall post count up by 70% and putting the Facebook-owned social network on a similar footing as Google+ and Pinterest.
But what do you make of this update, and the impact it will have on Instagram?
