After a long wait, Instagram is finally bringing its direct messages to desktops. On January 14th, Instagram announced that it has begun testing this feature and will only make it available for a very small group of users in the world. This is a highly anticipated move since it will help facilitate communication amongst Instagram users, especially those that have limited access to their mobile devices. In doing so, according to TechCrunch, this will help further position Instagram as a tool rather than just an entertainment platform.
According to Facebook, the future of digital communication lies in direct messaging, groups, and Stories. Since Stories had already made its way to Instagram’s page, it was only a matter of time for dm’s to follow their way.
While users will be able to enjoy a well-rounded messaging experience, it will not be identical to the experience available in the app. Users will have access to their inbox, will be able to send and receive text messages, receive notifications, create and participate in group chats, receive disappearing pictures and videos and like messages by double clicking. They will also be able to react and respond to Stories and send posts they find on their feeds through the dm’s.
While users won’t be able to send videos and pictures right from a webcam, there’s another limitation that is causing a bit of concern. According to TechCrunch, messages sent through Instagram’s website will not be encrypted for the moment. This contradicts Facebook’s mission to create a secure messaging network through its three platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. This network would consist of connecting all three messaging platforms so users could send and receive messages through all three in one single place. For the moment, WhatsApp is the only platform that has end-to-end encryption – a security feature that has the ability to stop others, such as Facebook, the government, and hackers from seeing a user’s messages.
According to Facebook’s former Security Chief, Alex Stamos, this limitation is due to the fact that Instagram’s website is run on JavaScript. Even though there’s no current solution for this problem, it is possible that one can exist in the future. What’s for sure is that Facebook will keep on fighting for message encryption for all of its three messaging platform since data privacy and security is high on their priority list after several related scandals and fines in the past years.
Because there is still a bit of a wait ahead before Instagram makes this feature public, if it ever does, it’s also possible that the feature will go through several changes and will not be the same as the one being currently tested. For the moment, we can only be patient and thankful that after six years of Instagram Direct’s launch, Instagram is finally making this feature available for desktop.
Source: techcrunch.com