Instagram Adds Longer Voice Messages, Transcriptions & Follow Everyone Feature to Direct Messages

Instagram / Voice Transcriptions

Instagram recently rolled out more updates for Direct Messages.

Here’s what’s new:

• Voice transcriptions: Users can now see text transcriptions of voice messages before, during, and after playing them.

• Longer voice messages: The maximum length for voice messages has increased to 5 minutes, giving users more room to share thoughts and stories.

• Follow everyone in a group chat: A new one-tap option lets users follow all members in a group chat they're not already connected with, directly from the conversation details.

Instagram / Follow everyone in a group chat

Why it matters: Instagram is continuing to build out its messaging tools to better support real-time, personal interactions, whether it's creators engaging with fans, friends staying in touch with each other, or groups organizing big life events.

Transcriptions improve usability for people in quiet or busy environments. Longer voice messages offer more flexibility in how users express themselves. And the group chat follow feature is great for quickly strengthening new connections.

In case you missed it: These updates come alongside a tweak to the DM filter, which now sits to the left of the Primary, General, and Requests tabs to make high-priority messages easier to surface.

Want more updates and insights on Instagram’s latest features? Follow me on LinkedIn and sign up for my free newsletter.