Instagram on Friday announced an update to DMs, its direct message inbox, that will improve the experience for those who receive a lot of incoming messages, such as creators and influencers. Now, the app is introducing tools that will allow users to sort and filter their “message requests”—those messages that don’t reach their primary inbox—based on controls the user sets.
The new tools will give users the ability to sort and filter these message requests by number of followers, verified accounts, brands, creators, and other factors. This will help the creator better identify those higher priority messages that may merit a response due to the impact they could have on the creator’s business and relationships.
Image credits:Instagram
Additionally, a new “Story Replies” folder will be added so that story responses are accessible in one place.
The company said the changes come after hearing from creators around the world that managing their direct messages can be difficult.
“Now when you go to the requests inbox, sometimes it can be really overwhelming,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a mail on the social network. “So what we’ve done is added ways to filter those requests to only see the ones you’re looking for,” he continued. “There is a lot more to do to improve the inbox for creators and requests,” Mosseri admitted. “But hopefully this is a step in the right direction.”
Image credits:Instagram
The “Sort and Filter” options will appear overlaid at the top of the inbox, where users can choose to sort requests by their age or by the number of followers the sender has, helping to highlight those messages that could be from other creators or brands seeking commercial agreements. Additionally, they can check or uncheck other options to further limit what is displayed based on factors such as whether the account is verified, a business account, a creator account, those that have a certain number of subscribers, and more.
Instagram says it will continue to invest in direct messages over time.
