While Facebook might have stated that they will be allowing users to merge their Instagram accounts with Facebook Messenger, it does not mean that it will be taking away the DM feature from Instagram. In fact, Instagram’s latest update is all set to make your Direct Messaging much easier.
As announced in an official blog post, Instagram is adding a new green dot next to the profile icon of your friends (or followers), showing you when they’re available to chat. The dot will be seen in Instagram Direct as well as your friend list when you share a post from the feed.
According to Instagram, when your friends are active on Instagram, you’ll see a green dot next to their profile picture in various spaces within the app, including the Direct inbox and your friend list when you share a post from the feed. However, you will only see the status of friends who follow you or people who you have talked to in Direct.
In case you don’t like the new feature, you can easily hide your own status and turn off the ability to see when your friends are active in your settings.
The new update comes a couple of days after Instagram had rolled out the Question Sticker for their stories. While the development team has certainly been working hard in introducing new features to increase engagement with the service, the fact that Instagram is getting new features for its DM is kind of ironic, keeping in mind that Facebook wants to merge the service with the Facebook Messenger.
