Instagram is adding the ability to schedule private messages. Social media expert Lindsay Gamble discovered the feature, and Instagram confirmed to TechCrunch that it is rolling out scheduled PMs to all users.
When you’re typing a message, just press and hold the Send button and you’ll be able to choose the date and time. It seems that messages can be scheduled up to 29 days in advance. Until all the scheduled messages are sent, you’ll see a banner that says “x scheduled messages”.
This will be useful for those who want to wish several friends a happy birthday at once or, for example, remind someone that they have to pick them up from the airport on a certain day. It would also be useful for people who tend to text at night and don’t want everyone to know how late they’ve been up. That’s definitely not what I do with email.
It’s worth noting that Instagram is rolling out this PP scheduling feature even before all users can schedule posts and videos in advance. Currently, this feature is only available to those who have created a professional account.
Meanwhile, Instagram is launching several limited-time year-end features to help you celebrate the holidays and preserve memories of 2024. First, a year-end collage tool has been added to Stories to celebrate the end of the year. Based on the images shared by Instagram, it appears that you can use the Happy New Year overlay.
There are also several New Year’s themed Add Your Own templates, for example, you can invite friends to share photos in the format “How 2024 began” or “How 2024 ended”. If you click the Like button in Stories at the end of the year, you’ll see a custom effect. The New Year’s font and countdown text effect are also available in stories, videos, and posts in the feed.
Festive chat themes for the holidays include a New Year’s theme, one called “chill” and, of course, another based on Mariah Carey’s work. Last but not least, if you use certain holiday-related emojis or phrases like “Happy New Year” or “Hello 2025” in your PMs or messages before the end of the year, you will see a kind of Easter egg.
