Instagram today announced several updates for direct messages on its platform, including location sharing, nicknames, new sticker packs, and more.
There’s now an option to share a live location with a friend for up to one hour on Instagram, which can be used for locating friends when getting together in real life. There’s also an option to pin a spot to a map for coordinating meetups.
Instagram says that locations can only be shared privately in DMs, either in a chat with just one other person or a group chat. All live locations will expire after an hour, and the feature is turned off by default. Only people in the chat can see your location, and location information cannot be forwarded to other chats. Instagram’s blog post says that users should be “mindful” of their privacy and only share their location with real-life friends.
DMs in Instagram can be customized with nicknames, which appear in DM chats. Users can set nicknames for themselves or their friends, simplifying lengthy usernames to make them easier to recognize. Creating a nickname can be done by tapping on the chat name at the top of a conversation and then tapping on Nicknames and the username of the person.
Along with location sharing and nicknames, Instagram has also added 17 sticker packs with 300 new stickers that can be used in DMs. There is a new option to favorite a sticker, and a new DM sticker tray.
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