With social distancing and self-isolation being followed across the world to contain the spread of coronavirus, people with no prior experience of living alone might find it difficult to cope and the situation might take a toll on their mental health. As a measure to help people reconnect, Instagram is currently working on adding a “DM Me” sticker.
As spotted by app reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong, the feature will exist alongside other stickers such as Mention, Hashtag, and Challenge. Just like the name hints, the sticker will let your story viewers send you a direct message.
For those wondering why this should be an explicit feature since people can send a direct message anyway, here are a few perspectives and use-cases in which I think this feature might be useful.
First off, by using this sticker in one of your stories, you’re putting it out there that you’re feeling disconnected or lonely. This way, people know you’re in the right headspace for having conversations or catching up – be it people from your past relationships, friends, or acquaintances.
Also, it would pave the way to break the ice between people who have just met. As a bonus, it would help reduce the cold out of the blue direct messages that you were not anticipating from a person. If you’re the sender, you will at least have a backup plan to play it cool in case the conversation backfires and doesn’t go as you would want.
More importantly, it might lead to meaningful conversations that might be life-changing to someone who’s tired of the chaos going on in the world right now for which the pandemic situation plays a significant if not a complete role.
For now, Instagram has not revealed when exactly the sticker would be available but going by the company’s focus on stickers lately, we could expect it to happen in the coming weeks.
Featured Image Courtesy: Jane Manchun Wong / Twitter
