Instagram has always been a favorite photo-sharing app across the globe, but one of the things that it used to lack was the ability to let you share messages privately with friends. Of course, Instagram immediately jumped in and offered direct messaging, which meant that two friends can now send photos to each other without anybody else seeing it.

However, the feature wasn’t really that big of a hit. Sure, there were a few users here and there who appreciated the privacy and took advantage of the chance to send private messages to a friend or two. Overall however, people just got used to sharing their images directly to their feed and not to specific people, so life just went on.

This time however, Instagram added yet another feature to Instagram Direct, which means that you may start to notice your message inbox getting a bit busier than usual.

Finally, Instagram allows you to send videos to groups of friends, making it even more fun to send direct messages to groups of people without bothering the rest of your followers. You can start sending videos that you don’t want people outside your inner circle to see, making Instagram even more fun.

Putting Conversation Alerts on Mute

What does this new feature mean aside from the fact that it’s another way for you to share secrets amongst friends?

Well, this also means that you’re going to have to give way to more distractions as your Instagram messaging sets off one alert after another, Facebook Messenger or Twitter style. You’re going to start hearing a new set of ‘dings’ on your phone, making it impossible for you to get any work done. That’s okay. Because you can actually turn that distraction off so that you can concentrate on more important things.

Here’s how to do it:

• Launch the Instagram app and go to the very top of your Instagram stream.
• Tap on the Direct icon found on the upper-right corner.
• Select which conversation you would like to put on mute.
• Tap on that small ‘i’ icon at the corner of the screen.
• Toggle the option to ‘Mute Notifications’ on or off as needed

Since there isn’t really any option to mute your notifications for a specific amount of time (the same way Facebook does when you mute conversations), you would have to go back and forth in case you want to turn this feature on and off. That’s okay though, as knowing that Instagram tries their very best to stay on top of things and make things easier for their users, they’re bound to release an update in the future that would let you do just that.

Truly, Instagram has evolved in so many ways. Where it used to be just a simple app you can use to share random fun images with your friends, it has gone way beyond that. It has become an important marketing tool, a great way to promote brands. And with this new feature introduced, there’s bound to be a lot more uses for it, whether it’s personal or for business.