Instagram Update: Send Live Video With Direct, Comment Easily

Instagram introduced two new features to the app to make it easier for users to interact with one another this week. Now users can send live video via the “direct” function in the app and a new feature makes it easier to comment on posts without leaving the feed.

The live video feature was added to the app on Thursday with the latest app update, according to a blog post from Instagram. The feature is available in version 26 of the app for iOS users as well as those with Android devices. To use the new feature, users first need to download the latest update which can be found in the Apple App Store or Google Play.

Once users update they can send live video to their friends in the app. While either streaming live video, or watching a live video, a user simply has to select the “direct” icon, that looks like a paper airplane, and then select the user or group of users to send the video to. People will only be able to view the video while it’s actually live though, so they’ll have to open the direct message and select the video while the person who is doing the live video is still live.

Users can also disable it, so that their live videos can’t be sent in “direct.” If a user’s account is set to private, only the people that follow them will be able to see their live video.

The other new addition to the app has been rolling out over the last few weeks. It makes commenting on posts easier and doesn’t require users to click on a specific post to comment. Instagram traditionally does a slow roll out to test new features before deciding to give it to all users, as it tested the “archive” feature this way before making it available to everyone.

Now when users look at one post on their feed for more than five seconds a new option to comment will appear. It will subtly pop up below the post and say, “Add a comment…” with a spot to begin typing a comment. This only happens when looking at a post on the feed, not if a user goes to a specific profile and selects a post.