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Instagram Launches Disappearing Live Video and Messages (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the now-you-see-me-now-you-don't dept.

Instagram is continuing to add features to its service to woo Snapchat and Periscope users. Today, the company will be rolling out two big new features to Instagram Stories on iOS and Android: live video on Instagram Stories and disappearing photos and videos for groups and friends in Instagram Direct. TechCrunch reports: Instagram Live is the most ephemeral of the major Live streaming platforms now that Meerkat is defunct. While Periscope started with a 24 hour expiration date, it eventually allowed permanent replays like Facebook Live. Instagram Live videos disappear as soon as the stream stops, which could get people broadcasting more frequently rather than saving the capability just for big flashy events or citizen journalism. Meanwhile, viewers will feel greater urgency to watch immediately because they know it's their only chance. Instagram Direct already has 300 million monthly users, but all of the messages are permanent. The existing product lets you send text, photos, and videos, and posts from Instagram to friends and discuss them. But with Instagram Stories now letting you communicate visually with overlaid text and drawing, Instagram needed a way to share these 'Gramsterpieces' privately. Now Direct will have an ephemeral Stories messages bar at the top along with a list of permanent threads below. When you go to share a photo or video to Instagram Stories, you'll be able to also select friends or groups of friends to send it to. It's much like how you can send Snapchat Stories as private messages, but adds in a groups feature. Recipients can watch the messages once, and replay them once, but then they're gone.

18 comments

  1. "Disappearing" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Once it's on their servers, it's never really gone.

    1. Re:"Disappearing" by Desler · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Or when someone snapshots it.

    2. Re:"Disappearing" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed it isn't. But the moment people with access to those servers publish a disappointing video or an audio tape to hurt people, instagram will need to convince people again to trust them.

      Its not very hard though, see the apple iphone puppet show.

    3. Re:"Disappearing" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Get your dick out of that poor dog's anus you sick fuck.

    4. Re:"Disappearing" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Precisely. People are duped by this "vanishing" story, then surprised when their vanished posts, pictures or videos surface to haunt them.
      We are being herded into a future of digital slavery, run by the Big Data conglomerates (which don't pay taxes).

    5. Re: "Disappearing" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is it odd that my mental translation was "instagram, under control of NSA, launches 'disappearing' messages to fool idiots into posting shit they might otherwise keep quiet"?

    6. Re:"Disappearing" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's good to consider the whole internet as a write-once, never erase medium...

      Too bad we can't actually harness that power for backups :-/

      Imagine this phone call:
      - Welcome to the NSA. For quality insurance purposes, your call may be recorded.
      - Um, hello there, I have lost a file, could you please send it back to me please?
      - Done, my dear sir. Have a nice day with the National Security Agency!

    7. Re:"Disappearing" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Similarly: The moment you can market something, the public believe it because they're idiots.

  2. They've lost their original calling. by Static · · Score: 2

    I wonder why. Is it because Facebook bought them? Or is it because they munted the simple timeline with some "algorithm" that is driving people away.

    1. Re:They've lost their original calling. by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      People want what people want:

      - Anonymity
      - Instant gratification
      - Narcissism
      - Violence
      - Bullying
      - Sex
      - Revenge
      - Deniability
      - Privacy
      - Vapourware

      They won't get it because people with a computer are smarter than other people with a computer.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  3. Until they are leaked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there.

  4. A step was omitted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Recipients can watch the messages once, and replay them once, but then they're gone

    You left out and record them once. Just like Snapchats and Vine videos are plastered all over the internet, these will get screen shotted or video ripped and distributed far and wide. Nothing that you send to another user ever expires, and these companies are negligent in claiming that it does.

  5. Hyping urgency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Like tv of yester-year those following will get a smug satisfaction and it adds another layer of hype if it gets recorded and goes viral adding to the follower hype loop.

  6. Congratulations by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

    Congratulations, you just invented Snapchat.

    Smell the innovation, baby!

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  7. Save-app by CanEHdian · · Score: 2

    App that will be able to retain these in 3, 2, 1...

    --
    When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
  8. I threw-up in my mouth a little by neo-mkrey · · Score: 1

    When I read the word 'Gramsterpieces'.