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A big change is coming to your Instagram DMs… Facebook (which owns Instagram) announced a redesign for Messenger that includes a direct integration between Insta DMs and FB’s Messenger app. This will bring new features to the private messaging experience on Instagram, such as emoji reactions and personalized chat colors, as well as making it possible to chat with users seamlessly between IG and FB.

An exciting aspect for businesses and social media marketers is that Facebook’s Messenger API has also been updated to include access across Instagram, which means third party tools should soon allow better management of Instagram’s private messages.

Here are a few more peaks at the redesign of the overall Messenger experience, which includes a new gradient logo, chat themes, and custom reactions.

New Features:

On Instagram, users can opt-in or opt-out of the new Messenger integration. Those who opt-in will have these new features available:

• Seamlessly communicate across the apps

• “Watch Together” — Watch videos from Facebook, IGTV, Reels, movies and more with friends

• Vanish Mode — Send messages that disappear

• Selfie Stickers — “Create a series of boomerang stickers with your selfie to use in conversation”

• Personalized chat colors

• Custom emoji reactions

• Forwarding

• Threaded replies

• Animated message effects

• Privacy controls, including enhanced reporting and blocking

Why it matters

Private social media messaging has been growing in usage for years, and Facebook is trying to make sure they stay on top of these trends by connecting their apps in ways that keep the audience using their platforms.

For businesses, these updates should provide some fun and helpful features for customer service and user engagement. This could be a great way to get creative when interacting with your audience one-on-one!

One potential downside—it seems that Instagram still enjoys a better reputation than its parent company, in light of the many privacy concerns and other scandals that have plagued Facebook in recent years. Could integrating Instagram at this point backfire by reminding ‘grammers that they are really using Facebook when they log into Insta?

Related News

This month, we’ve also got you covered on these important social media news items:

Blog

New “Sounds” feature for adding music to Snaps

New Facebook Business Suite debuted globally

Instagram is integrating directly with FB messenger

LinkedIn has officially joined the Stories club

More noteworthy news items from this month:

• Twitter Adds New Prompts to Alert Users Before Sharing Any Tweet Flagged for Misinformation (Social Media Today)

• Twitter plans to change how image cropping works following concerns over racial bias (The Verge)

• Automatically share a WordPress blog post as a Twitter Thread (TechRadar)

• Our letter to creators: Inspire the world to act, not just double-tap (Pinterest Business Blog)

• Pinterest Integrates With Microsoft Edge Browser (AdWeek)

• Snapchat: How to Add Sounds to a Snap (AdWeek)

• Nextdoor’s Treat Map is Back with New Features for a Safe Halloween (Nextdoor Blog)

• Twitter updates policy on sharing hacked data after 'NY Post' mess (Mashable)

• YouTube Hashtags and How to Increase Video Views (Sprout Social)

• A Brand's Guide to Unsplash: How to Unlock the Next Big Visual Marketing Channel (Buffer)

• Google Officially Releases Its Web Stories for WordPress Plugin (WPTavern)

• Paid Online Events for Small Business Recovery (FB news)

Looking for More Social Media Help?

The expert team at Dooley Social Studio helps brands get attention by being thoughtful about how they give it. Our goal is to make every social interaction with your company a remarkable one. Get in touch to find out how a partnership with Dooley Social Studio can grow your brand.

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