Instagram adds fun photo reply feature to its DM interface

This year, Instagram has been adding a lot of changes to liven up the app a bit more. You know, fellow kids, it added location-based stickers, stories, live 3D masks, and disappearing photos in the DMs. These features do sound familiar.

Still, it's a bit odd that a service, which is mainly focused on picture sharing doesn't do more with pictures within chat. The latest update, however, might improve on this.

Instagram now allows you to “react” to pictures that you've been sent in chat. Just tap the reply button under the photo and you will be taken to your viewfinder to take your own “reply picture”. What makes it special is the fact that you get the original photo — the one you are replying to — embedded into your own, so you can use it as a creative sticker.



Note that you can only respond to picture messages that are “permanent” (the user has imported them from the camera roll). If you use the camera icon in the Instagram DM inteface, you are sending self-deleting messages — you can not reply to those. A photo reply is also a disappearing message, so you can't create a thread of infinite replies.

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