In line with reports from back in October, Instagram has now finally started rolling out the ability to send messages from its desktop website. This means you no longer need to rely on third-party apps and workarounds to text your friends while at work, using your laptop.
Instagram porting the much-awaited direct messaging feature on the web will come as a relief for a large number of users. You can see in the image above that the experience is going to be pretty much the same. You can start private or group conversations, heart a message, and share pictures. The DM feature on the web won’t allow you to start audio/ video calls, send voice messages or share GIFs right away, which is disappointing.
In an official tweet, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said, “Today we start to test Direct on the desktop web.” He then added the feature has currently been rolled out to only a tiny percentage of the photo-sharing app’s over 1 million users. Instagram has been testing DMs on the web for a really long time but it still wants to make sure that the feature has been implemented as intended.
Haven’t Got DMs on the Web Yet? Here’s a Workaround
Up until now, Instagram didn’t officially support Direct Messaging on the web. I talk to a lot of my friends over DMs, so I’ve been using this workaround to converse with them via my laptop itself.
First, open the Instagram website in your desktop browser. Right-click and tap the ‘Inspect element’ option or hit ‘Ctrl+Shift+C’ to open the developer tools.
Now, click the ‘Toggle device toolbar’ option on the right at the top. Select iPhone X or Pixel 2 XL as the device and refresh (F5) to reload the website. You will see the Instagram mobile website open in your desktop browser and well, you can now use DMs with ease.
Once the final round of testing (read as public beta) is complete, you can expect Direct Messages to be made available for all users. It could be within the next few weeks or a couple of months. It all depends on the feedback gathered and bugs that need fixing. I mean, I am really excited to have Direct Messaging on the web. What about you, guys? Share your opinions with us in the comments below.