Overview
- Instants, launched Wednesday, is live worldwide inside Instagram with a companion app in testing in select countries such as Spain and Italy.
- Photos must be taken in the in‑app camera, captions are allowed but edits and uploads from the camera roll are blocked, and each photo vanishes after one view or 24 hours.
- Instants live as a small stack in the DM inbox where friends can react with emojis or reply, and senders can quickly undo a share before it’s seen.
- Shared shots save to a private archive for up to a year with options to create a recap for Stories, while teens get Family Center safeguards like time limits and Sleep Mode.
- Meta says screenshots and screen recordings are blocked, though recipients can still capture the screen with another device and Instagram DMs no longer use end‑to‑end encryption.