Instagram has been very busy building new tools for its direct messaging products.
In the past year, the Meta-owned platform has rolled out more than 20 updates to DMs, ranging from AI chatbots to new ways to share music with friends.
Why is Instagram so busy in the DMs? It’s become the primary social interaction on the app.
“When you think of Instagram, you probably think of a feed of square photos, but how Instagram works has changed a lot over the years,” Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s top executive, said last year. “And if you look at what people share, how people express their creativity, the primary way they do so is actually DMs on Instagram.”
In March 2024, Instagram announced a handful of new messaging features, including the ability to edit messages after they’d been sent and turn on or off read receipts.
The following months were filled with various updates to Instagram DMs. Several months saw new AI feature rollouts, like a suite of user-made AI characters in July and AI-generated DM themes in September.
Instagram also confirmed via a Threads post from Mosseri that it was testing moving its DM button, typically seen at the top right of the app, to the main navigation bar in November.
To top it all off, at the start of 2025, Mosseri said it would be “doubling down” on messaging as it focused on two core priorities for the new year — creativity and connection.
Business Insider compiled all of the updates Instagram has made to messaging since last March to help you keep track.
Here’s a chart breaking down each feature and when it launched:
MonthNew FeatureMarch (2024)July (2024)September (2024)October (2024)November (2024)December (2024)January (2025)February (2025)
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