Instagram Shuts Down Standalone Direct Messaging App

Instagram is going to kill its standalone Direct messaging app, moving the functionality back to the main app. The company didn’t give any specific reason why it is shutting down the service.

Matt Navarra, a social media commentator was the first one who broke this news. Well, a direct messaging app was also tested by Instagram’s rival Snapchat, on iOS and Android.

Instagram Shuts Down Standalone Direct Messaging App

Instagram first launched direct messaging in its main app in 2013. It started to experiment with moving the feature over to its own app in December 2017. It was available across several markets on both Android and iOS but Instagram never promoted the app.

Instagram says:

“We’re rolling back the test of the standalone Direct app,” a spokesperson said in a statement provided to TechCrunch. “We’re focused on continuing to make Instagram Direct the best place for fun conversations with your friends.”

According to TechCrunch, the app had just crossed 1.35 million installs worldwide on the App Store and Google Play. The largest percentage of those have come from Turkey, which accounted for about 42%, or 567,000. It’s second largest test market was Italy, at 500,000 installs.

The Direct app was updated on iOS at the end of December, and the Android version was updated as recently as the end of April.

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