Instagram launches disappearing ‘Instants’ photos

Instagram is rolling out a new way to share photos that disappear, borrowing a page from the playbooks of Snapchat and BeReal. The feature, called “Instants,” allows users to post ephemeral photos that cannot be edited and are only visible to close friends or followers who follow you back. Starting Wednesday, Instants becomes available globally as a feature within the Instagram app’s inbox, while a standalone app is being tested in select countries.

To find Instants inside the main Instagram app, open your direct message inbox and look for an icon or a stack of photos in the bottom-right corner. Once you share a photo, friends can respond with emoji reactions or send a reply to your DMs, but the image vanishes after they view it. These photos also disappear after 24 hours, and Instagram has blocked screenshots and screen recordings to preserve privacy.

Even though Instants disappear for viewers, you can keep them in a personal archive for up to a year. From there, you have the option to reshare them as a recap to your Instagram Stories. You can also undo a sent Instant immediately after posting or delete it permanently from your archive.

The separate Instants mobile app, which appeared in Italy and Spain in April, offers “immediate access to the camera” and requires only an Instagram account to use, according to the company. “Instants you share on the separate app will show up for friends on Instagram and vice versa,” Instagram explains. “We’re trying this separate app out to see how our community uses it, and we’ll continue to evolve it as we learn more.”

During testing, Instagram observed that people “tend to use Instants to share much more casual, much more authentic moments about their day,” said Instagram head Adam Mosseri. “And we know that this type of sharing of personal moments with friends is a core part of what makes Instagram Instagram, but we also know that a lot of people don’t really share a lot to their profile grids anymore.”