Instagram has quietly rolled out a feature that allows users to schedule direct messages. The Meta-owned social network confirmed to TechCrunch on Monday that the new feature will be rolling out to all users worldwide.
The option to schedule DMs is especially useful for creators and brands who want to schedule their outreach messages at the best time. It is also useful for ordinary users who want to contact their friends at a specific time due to different time zones. Additionally, you can also use this feature to send reminders about something at a specific point in the future.
The new feature was first discovered by social media expert Lindsey Gamble.
You can schedule a DM by typing your message, holding down the send button, and choosing a date and time to send your message. According to our testing, Instagram allows you to schedule messages up to 29 days in advance. Once you schedule a message, you'll see a “1 message scheduled” banner every time you open a chat until the DM is delivered.
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Over the past few weeks, Instagram has been building out DMs and adding new features for both creators and regular users. It recently introduced the ability for users to share their location with friends via DM, directly challenging services like Apple's Find My and Snapchat's Snap Map. Users can also now customize names in DMs by adding nicknames for themselves or others.
Instagram recently added tools for creators to sort and filter message requests. Creators can now categorize messages by number of followers, verified accounts, brand, creator, and other factors.