5 Things About Instagram DM That You Should Know

Instagram is well known as a photo sharing social media platform. With a current reported 1 billion monthly active users, Instagram is the number one social media platform for photo sharing.

However, besides social media, Instagram can also be used as an instant messaging app. In the Instagram embedded function, you can direct message or in short DM people that you know and even anybody outside the circle of your followers and friends.

Read here on our previous article on how to DM your followers using Instagram.

Here we list down the top 5 things you need to know about the Instagram DM that you probably didn’t know.

1. YOU CAN BASICALLY SEND DM TO ANYONE ON INSTAGRAM

As long you can find that person on Instagram, you can DM anyone on Instagram regardless they are your followers, or they are following you or not.

However, if you do DM someone who does not follow you on Instagram, it will appear as a request in their Instagram inbox message. You will not be able to see whether they have read your message or not.

Once they allow the request, you can then send subsequent DM to him or her, and it will go directly to their normal inbox message.

2. YOU CAN UNSEND A DM

If you mistakenly send a DM to a person and you want to retract it, it is possible to withdraw it if they have not open your DM yet. Here are the steps how you can unsend or retrieve back a DM.

Step 1
In your DM message chat box, tap the message you want to unsend

Step 2
Tap “Unsend”

Step 3
Tap again to confirm unsending the message

It will remove the message for everyone. However, if you unsend it too late, some people may have read it already.

3. SHARE INSTAGRAM POST TO FRIENDS USING DM

If you are browsing Instagram and found some exciting post you would like to share with your friends, you can easily share it by using the DM function.

Here are the steps on how you can share the Instagram post using DM

Step 1
Below the Instagram post, you want to share, tap the “aeroplane” icon

Step 2
It will show you your list of followers. Choose the friends whom you want to share the post

4. YOU CAN SEND DISAPPEARING DMs TO YOUR FRIENDS

Similar to Snapchat, you can use Instagram DM to send disappearing photos or videos to your friends. The pictures and videos will disappear once they have viewed it. However, if your friend screenshot the images, you will be notified.

Here are the steps on how you can send disappearing DMs to your friends.

Step 1
In your Instagram app, swipe right to enter the camera mode. Capture a photo or video and tap “Send to”

Step 2
Choose friends that you want to share. Tap “Send”. The images or videos will disappear once your friend has seen it.

5. YOU CAN VIDEO CHAT USING INSTAGRAM DM

Another exciting feature that Instagram has put into the DM is the video chat. Similar to other social media platform that now allows video calling, you can also use the Instagram DM for video chat.

Here are the steps on how you can video chat using Instagram DM.

Step 1
Open your DM and choose followers or friends you want to video chat

Step 2
Once the chat box is open, tap the video icon at the top right

Step 3
The video chat will start once your friend or follower accepted the video call.

Your friend or follower will receive a notification that you are video calling them.

You can video call up to 4 people at once.

So, there you have it. The top 5 things you need to know about Instagram DM that you probably didn’t know. Please leave us a comment below on how do you often use your Instagram DM.

Please feel free to read our previous article on the three ways on how to private message on Instagram.