Facebook rolled out a feature in February of 2019, to allow users to read and respond to Instagram Direct Messages straight from the Facebook Page inbox on their desktops. This feature (the Instagram app for PC), was however only accessible via a Facebook Business Page and Instagram Business Profile. As highlighted in the announcement, “150 million people on Instagram have a conversation with a business every month, and on Messenger, 10 billion messages are sent between people and businesses every month“. Hence, the need to help businesses manage these conversations more efficiently.
Now, Facebook is making it even easier to send and respond to direct messages from your browser. Yes, browser. According to The Verge, the company announced that it will be rolling out access to DMs on the web to everyone globally, on Friday, April 10th, 2020. Confirmed in a retweet by the Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, on his Twitter account.
Reports also indicate that this experience will essentially be the same through the browser as it is on mobile, with options to: create new groups, start new conversations or continue old ones, either from the DM screen or a profile page; double-tap to like a message; share photos from your computer; see the total number of unread messages you have and…gasp…watch lives on your computer. Hopefully, this shouldn’t be a distraction to many, during [these times of] domiciled work-mode. Although, limitations may still exist on posting new photos to your feed or story, as this is still limited to the mobile apps for now.
This move is believed to be a step in the direction with the New York Times report, on Facebook’s broader vision for the company, on its cross-app functionality and unified integrated inbox, across its major messaging platforms – Instagram Direct, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
An update from 9to5mac reads: To check if you’ve got access with your account, head to Instagram.com and look for the Direct Message icon in the top right corner.