Instagram now lets you schedule DMs, share year-end collages, and enjoy new holiday features

Instagram now lets users schedule direct messages, giving you more control over your conversations. Here’s everything you need to know about this new feature.

Instagram has introduced a DM scheduling feature, new holiday-themed features and story tools. (Instagram)

Instagram has introduced a new feature that allows users to schedule direct messages (DMs). This addition, first reported by TechCrunch, enables you to long-press the "send" button and select a preferred date and time for your message to be sent.

Instagram DM Features scheduling Feature

According to Instagram's support page, the feature works only for text-based messages. Multimedia content, including photos, videos, or GIFs, will still need to be sent in real-time. Once a message is scheduled, you'll see a notification within the chat, indicating how many messages are set for future delivery. If you tap on this notification, you can either cancel or send the message immediately with a simple long press.

Scheduling Limits

Currently, Instagram allows scheduling messages up to 29 days in advance. This new feature is part of the platform's broader initiative to enhance its DM system. Other recent additions include the ability to edit messages, draw on photos, and share live locations with friends - similar to features found in Snapchat.

New Year Collage and Holiday Features

In addition to DM updates, Instagram has also introduced a feature to help users reflect on the year. A new tool lets you create a collage of your favourite moments from 2024 and share it as a story. Available through the first week of January, this feature enables users to combine several photos from the year into a single collage. Previously, creating such collages involved manually resizing and moving images around on the screen.

Instagram is also rolling out limited-time features to celebrate the holiday season. New “Add Yours” templates allow friends to reply to your story with their contributions and festive text effects like "New Year" and "Countdown" have been added. Additionally, holiday-themed chat themes, along with secret phrases such as “Happy New Year,” now trigger special effects in DMs and notes.