Instagram is testing a new way to use DMs as an alert option for new posts

A new article on Social Media Today reports that, as it continues to search for new ways to maintain relevance in the lives of its users, Instagram is experimenting with a new option that would seemingly enable people to share their latest posts with connections via DM, adding another way to boost awareness and engagement in the app.



As you can see in this example, shared by app researcher Hammod Oh, Instagram's testing a new 'Public' folder in your DM inbox which, as the description explains, would enable you to:

Which, seemingly, would provide a broad-reaching DM option to blast links to posts, to everybody who follows you in the app. That would provide an alternative way to alert users to your latest updates and projects, which leans into evolving usage trends - though it could also become very spammy very quickly, depending on how it's applied.

Back when LinkedIn initially launched its long-form publishing platform, for example, spammers loved it because every time you saved a new post, all of your LinkedIn followers would get a specific notification in the app, providing a quick and easy way to reach a lot of people, free of charge. Spammers caught onto this, and within a couple of months, LinkedIn had to limit the prevalence of such notifications to stop people misusing it as a blast option.

Can imagine the same happening on IG? That could make those message notifications get real old, real fast. I assume Meta has a solution in mind for this, which would restrict potential misuse - but then again, as it desperately looks for anything to keep people active in the app, it wouldn't be surprising to see them roll it out, then deal with the consequences.

Over time, as more and more social media users have moved away from public posting - and the scrutiny that can come with such - they've increasingly become more reliant on private groups and DMs to share content with friends, with the News Feed becoming more of a discovery surface than an engagement platform within itself.

Meta's top executives have reiterated this - earlier this month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained that: