Instagram To Let Users Download All Their Photos, Videos, Messages

Instagram launched in 2010 as a way to share photos and put filters on them. Since then, it has evolved into a massive social platform where people make an income through sponsored content, document their lives, and communicate with friends on a daily basis.

It might even incorporate audio and video calling in the near future.

However, eight years after its launch, anything a user posts to Instagram is trapped on Instagram. TechCrunch’s Josh Constine criticized the service for its lack of a data download tool on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, the company responded by confirming such a feature was in the pipeline.

“We are building a new data portability tool,” Instagram told TechCrunch. “You’ll soon be able to download a copy of what you’ve shared on Instagram, including your photos, videos and messages.”

The news came at a time when an increasing number of people are disillusioned with massive social networks like Facebook for one reason or another and might want to delete them from their lives. However, before doing that, users might want pristine copies of everything they ever shared for portability’s sake, something Facebook has offered since 2010.

Since Instagram is owned by Facebook, it seemed curious that the photo-sharing app did not have the same functionality that its data-leaking parent had eight years ago.

Of course, Instagram has far more serious reasons to incorporate this feature as soon as possible than simple customer convenience. On May 25, new European privacy laws will go into effect that requires apps like Instagram and Facebook to disclose exactly what data they harvest from users and how that data is used.

Per TechCrunch, that law also requires apps to have some form of data portability. As long as Instagram allows users to download photos, videos and messages as promised by that date, it should comply with the new regulations.