Instagram is trying out another way to engage younger audiences, via a Snapchat-like separate app called Instants that emphasizes the raw, unedited content sharing of temporary photos.
As displayed in these images, Instants opens to the camera, like Snapchat, and lets users share disappearing images with friends.
Which sounds very Snapchat-esque.
The catchphrase for the app is “real life, real quick.” with the idea being that Instants will enable simple image editing in a privacy-friendly way. “No edits, share instantly,” the Google Play Store description says.
Instants is essentially a renamed version of Shots, which was a feature Meta tried out in Instagram last year.
Shots was also a no-edit, no-filter image-sharing option that allowed IG users to quickly send a picture to a friend. That friend was then only able to view the image once before it disappeared from existence.
Conceptually, it felt like a mix of BeReal and Snapchat, designed to prompt more spontaneous interaction, as opposed to more polished feed posts. That could help get people sharing more often, and clearly, the response data showed that there was some interest in the concept. This is presumably what led Meta to explore another version of the application.
The separate Instants app has been in development for the last few months, with initial references to it spotted in the back-end code of Instagram February. At that time, Meta confirmed that it was experimenting with the concept, but had no concrete plans for a launch.
Evidently, those plans have now solidified, and Instants is set to take on Snapchat in at least some regions.
So why now? Why is Meta launching a new Snapchat-style app at this stage, when it’s had years to try to challenge Snap?
Well, it could be because Snapchat’s growth has stalled, and has even decreased in some regions. Meta may see this as an opportunity to put the pressure on, in the hopes of shrinking Snapchat’s market reach even more.
Meta has had a vendetta against Snapchat for years, stemming from its efforts to acquire the app in 2013, when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered $3 billion for the rising platform, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel rejected Meta’s advances, though after meeting with Zuckerberg in person and deciding not to take him up on his offer, Spiegel said Zuckerberg seemed to take the rejection personally.
Since then, Meta has launched several Snapchat replicant features, each designed to dilute Snapchat’s presence, including Instagram Stories, which has gone on to become a major element of Instagram, and which has impacted Snapchat’s growth trajectory.
There was also Poke, a more direct Snapchat clone app that didn’t catch on, which Meta launched in 2013 then shut down 17 months later. Slingshot was another Snapchat killer app that Meta tried out in 2014, but was shuttered after just 6 months, while there was also Quick Updates on Facebook, which Meta tried out in 2016 as a means to encourage raw, unedited sharing in the app.
Outside of IG Stories, none of these efforts caught on, which probably doesn’t bode well for this new Instants app either.
But Meta is seemingly determined to bury Snapchat, and with parent company Snap in a vulnerable state, particularly as it looks to the launch of its coming AR glasses, Meta is seemingly smelling blood in the water again.
Will that work?
Although history suggests it won’t, maybe with Snap unable to allocate resources to promotion in some markets, Meta will be able to steal some thunder, with at least some users.
Instants doesn’t seem like a major app, and its functionality is intrinsically tied back to Instagram, which many teens may not feel comfortable with. But in regions where Snapchat is declining, or hasn’t gained a foothold, maybe Instants can become the top instant sharing app.
