Instagram launches Instants for ephemeral photo sharing with specific people

Instagram today is introducing Instants, which is both a feature and an app. Instants is billed as « a new way to share in the moment – with spontaneous, unfiltered photos » that go out to your friends. These are ephemeral to viewers, but are saved in your archive for up to a year and can be reshared as a recap to Stories.

Your friends can react and reply, with replies going straight to your DMs. The new Instants « companion app » provides quicker camera access for the feature and is now rolling out to iOS and Android « in select countries ».

So Instants is basically just a…