Instagram Direct Messenger — A UX Case Study
Has this ever happened to you? Chances are, it has more often than you’d have liked.
The Intention:
When Instagram Direct was introduced in 2013, it was meant to be a platform for users to share their favourite Instagram posts with friends and groups quickly and discreetly, without publicly commenting on the post itself. The heart icon at that time was a great addition for a quick response. Since it resonated with liking a post in the regular feed, it made sense, and was instantly recognisable.
The Problem:
What I don’t think Instagram anticipated, was how big Instagram Direct would become, and that people would chat on Instagram and use it like a regular messaging service such as WhatsApp or iMessage.
Our Take:
It’s funny how in today’s social media world, a heart can mean so many different things. There could be a lot of connotations to it, depending on the tone of the conversation. When instagram introduced the feature, it was meant to duplicate the “like” on your regular feed. But with people now using the platform to chat with friends, family, potential clients even, a heart can be misleading, very quick.
A Call-To-Action (CTA) is meant to prompt an immediate response from a user, and the positioning of it is very important. In a regular messaging app, it’s usually a Send icon.
To Instagram’s credit, when you begin to type something in the message window, it does change to a “Send” CTA, but right after you click that, it’s back to the heart icon. And prone to many accidental, and often embarrassing, hearts. Another feature added recently was the “Unsend” option. That could work, but the user still gets to see it on their push notifications — and let’s face it, we all look at our phones almost instantly when we hear the tone.
With over a billion monthly active users, we have to consider this an irresponsible UX. There are already so many ways to “heart” something in a direct message, so there’s no need even for this standalone icon. And we can guarantee you that we’re not the only ones who think so.
Okay, we aren’t ones to just bash on a product, without actually offering up some solutions.
So here are our ideas:
Remove the icon.
There’s no reason for the icon. There are already so many ways to “heart” something in a direct message.
1. Text Message: Double tap to “heart” it.
2. Photo Message: Heart icon in the preview + a user can double tap it as well, without even going into the post.
3. A “single” heart is just confusing and awkward, most of the time. Looking at the way millennials text today, if someone actually did love something, you can bet that they will be spamming the hell out of the heart emoji (❤️) on their regular keyboard.
4. There are GIF responses added in now too — and more than half of the user group prefer GIFs to actual words (LOL).
Move the icon.
Flip the icon with the GIF icon. The other two icons don’t prompt an immediate response in the chat box, and users can decide if they want to actually send a gif at all.
Right Now:
Our suggestion:
Use it as a quick way to add something to the chat box, instead of actually sending the message:
If the heart icon prompts to a heart in the chat box, the user can use it to repeatedly add it without a) filling the whole chat box, and annoying the other user with a million push notifications and b) sending involuntary hearts to the wrong person.
Right Now:
Our suggestion:
In conclusion, Instagram, listen to your users. You’re one of the best practices for messaging platforms at the moment (whether you wanted to be one or not — and I know you do), so fix this problem!
And while we’re at it — can we please also fix the inconsistencies in Instagram direct messenger between Android and iOS? A story for another day, perhaps!