Instagram hits the copy button again with new disappearing Instants photos – The Verge

Jay Peters is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme. Instagram is once again cribbing from competitors like Snapchat and BeReal with a new photo-sharing format it calls “Instants,” which are ephemeral photos that you can’t edit and that you can only share with your close friends or followers that follow you back. Instants are available globally beginning on Wednesday as a feature in the inbox in the Instagram app and as a separate app that’s now in testing in select countries. To access Instants from the Instagram app, go to your DM inbox and look in the bottom-right corner for an icon or a stack of photos. After you post a photo, your friends can emoji react to it and send a reply to your DMs, but after they see it, the photo disappears for them. Instants also disappear after 24 hours, and they can’t be captured in screenshots or screen recordings. However, your Instants will remain in an archive for you for up to a year, and you can reshare them as a recap to your Instagram Stories if you’d like. You can also undo
Read More