3 Minutes
Imagine sending a photo that vanishes before you finish scrolling. That's the bet Meta is quietly making with a project called Instants — a standalone app and in-app feature built around one simple idea: make sharing ephemeral photos feel effortless again.
Business Insider reports that a Meta spokesperson confirmed the company is working on an internal prototype of an independent app for disappearing-image sharing. The concept will sound familiar to anyone who watched Snapchat reshape how people communicate with short-lived visuals: snap, send, gone. Developer and reverse-engineering specialist Alessandro Paluzzi shared screenshots that name the app “Instants” and include the tagline: “Share disappearing photos with friends.” Meta says the prototype is currently internal and not being distributed outside the company.
But Instants isn’t only a separate app in early testing. Instagram is also experimenting with a feature of the same name — previously referred to internally as “Shots” — that rolls out to select users in a handful of countries. It functions inside Instagram’s Direct inbox, designed for quick exchanges that don’t leave a permanent thread.
How does it behave? According to Instagram’s Help Center, Instants lets you send disappearing photos that vanish shortly after being opened and fully expire 24 hours after they were sent. There’s no editing of those photos once they’re dispatched, and those messages can only be sent to followers who follow you back — a small gate for privacy and control.
This is not the first time Instagram has flirted with ephemeral messaging. The platform added disappearing text and photo tools to Direct in 2016 and introduced Vanish Mode in 2020, letting users toggle messages that disappear after a chat session. What’s different now is the push toward a distinct product identity: an independent app focused on vanish-first sharing, plus a named in-app experience that emphasizes speed and intentionality.
Why revive the ephemeral playbook? Partly because ephemeral content still resonates with how people want to talk privately and casually. Partly because competition with Snapchat is evergreen. And partly because product teams keep circling back to features that encourage frequent, low-stakes interaction — the kind of behavior that deepens habit and keeps networks active.
There are practical questions ahead. Will Instants remain a siloed experiment inside Meta? Will the app integrate with Instagram accounts or pursue a different onboarding model? How will Meta handle moderation and safety for content that disappears quickly? Those answers will shape whether Instants becomes another niche experiment or the start of a fresh chapter in visual messaging.
Either way, the move underscores that even now, a decade after ephemeral messaging first surged, companies still see value in things that don’t stick around. Curious to see where Instants lands? Keep an eye on your updates and your DMs.
Leave a Comment