Instagram Test Brings DMs To Desktop, But Only For Some Users

Though Instagram is available on desktop browsers, the service is limited on the web when compared to the service's mobile apps. You'll need to download the mobile app to access a number of features, including any direct messages you've been sent. That has changed this week, at least for a percentage of users who have been included in a new Instagram test.

Though Instagram is primarily a mobile service, you can browse accounts and other limited things using the desktop website. Going forward, users will also be able to check their account DMs and respond to them using a desktop browser. Instagram introduced the new feature on Twitter this week.

It will take some time before all users have access to this feature, however. According to the company's tweet, it is only testing the feature with users at this time; it's unclear how many people have access to it and how long it will take to expand to other users. The company didn't provide any details beyond the nature of the test, either.

Though some tests are kept quiet and never pan out into full features, it seems pretty clear that Instagram intends to make this new DMs-on-desktop feature a standard feature available to all users. The new ability will follow some other changes and tweaks the social media platform has introduced over past weeks and months.

For example, Instagram revealed in mid-December that it is using artificial intelligence to help reduce the number of offensive captions published on the platform. Though users aren't prevented from publishing their preferred captions, the AI will issue a prompt if it suspects the message is potentially offensive.