Have you ever wanted to send a private photo to another user on Instagram without risking anyone else seeing it?
That is now possible thanks to Instagram’s initiative to make the platform much more private and secure for users by allowing them to have more control over their private communications in the DMs.
In this article, we will show you the steps you need to take to send photos privately to your friends on Instagram.
Sending Photos Privately to Your Friends
To send photos privately to your friends on Instagram, you have to follow a few simple steps, as explained below. Do note that the steps are the same for both Android and iOS users.
- Tap on the paper plane or messenger icon in the top right of the feed
- Tap the person you want to send the photo to or start a new chat
- Tap on the blue camera at the bottom left
- From here, you can either take a photo or a video or upload an existing piece of content.
- Then, you can customize the video or text in any way you want.
Once you finalize the photo you want to send privately, tap the icon in the bottom left of your screen. That will give you three options, “View once”, “Allow replay”, and “Keep in chat.”
If you want the photo you sent to the person to be only viewed once and be gone forever once they’ve opened it, click on “View once.”
If you want to allow the person you sent the photo to replay it one more time before it disappears forever, click on “Allow replay.”
And if you want the photo to be visible and stay in the chat with that particular user forever, tap on “Keep in chat.”
Read more: How To Look Through Pictures Without Accidentally Liking Them
Things to Keep in Mind When Sending Private Photos to Users on Instagram
While Instagram is very lenient regarding who you can and can’t send private photos to, you can only send disappearing photos or videos to users that are already following you or have already approved messages from you.
When it comes to sending posts from the Instagram feed, text messages, or hashtags, those types of messages don’t disappear and will stay visible in the conversation forever.
Read more: What Is The Best Time To Post On Instagram?
Alternative Way of Sending Photos Privately Via Instagram
While Instagram now allows you much more control over the photos you send other users, we wanted to share with you one alternative way you can send private photos to other Instagram users.
One great way of sharing private photos with your friends on Instagram is by uploading the photo to a private link or document such as Google Drive or DropBox. That way, only the person with access (of your choice) can open the link to preview its contents.
You can read additional Instagram articles here.
