At a press event in New York on Thursday, Instagram (owned by
Facebook) announced a major new feature called Instagram Direct that enables users to send private messages to another user, or up to 15 other users. Prior to this, all Instagram messages sent by users would be seen by everyone following them.
Until now Instagram had two ways to control who could see your images and videos. The default is public, which means that anyone can follow you and see everything you post. Users also had the option to approve their followers, but even then any follower would see any post. With the new Instagram Direct you have the option of sending private messages to anyone.
