Instagram has announced that it will shut down its standalone Direct messaging app. This means that users will no longer be able to slide into someone else’s DMs via the Direct for Instagram app.
It appears the photo-sharing social media platform is cutting off support for the Direct app “in the coming month”. However, all of those important messages you’ve sent to your friends via the standalone app aren’t disappearing for good. They’re just moving over to the dedicated Instagram app.
Spotted by social media industry commentator Matt Navarra, and a couple of dedicated fans in the Play Store, users are now being greeted with a message when using the Direct for Instagram app that simply says it “is going away”.
Cnet reports that Direct was originally unveiled on Dec. 7, 2017, as a camera-first app, that had more than a passing resemblance to Snapchat. That test rolled out to Chile, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Turkey and Uruguay. At the time, a company spokesperson told The Verge “Direct has grown within Instagram over the past four years, but we can make it even better if it stands on its own.”
Now it appears Direct is gone before it ever really lived but the reasons for the reversal aren’t immediately clear. The standalone app seemed to be following the same trajectory as Messenger, which parent company Facebook spun out of the Facebook app back in 2014.
