Instagram Instants app is Meta's latest attempt to make social sharing feel spontaneous again.
Instagram is testing a new standalone Instants app in Italy and Spain, offering disappearing photos and short videos that can only be viewed once and remain available for 24 hours.
The app is live on both Android and iOS stores in these regions, although some users still cannot download it despite the listing being visible. Meta is positioning the Instagram Instants app as a low-pressure way to keep up with friends, in contrast to the more polished, algorithm-driven feeds of the main Instagram service.
At the heart of the Instagram Instants app is an in-app camera that forces users to shoot in the moment, with no option to upload from the camera roll. Photos and videos captured this way cannot be edited beyond adding basic text, meaning what you shoot is essentially what your friends see. Instagram says this stripped-back approach is meant to encourage "casual photos and videos in the moment", echoing the appeal of rivals such as Snapchat, Locket and BeReal.
The Instagram Instants app is clearly aimed at the booming market for ephemeral communication that Snapchat helped define and BeReal popularised with unfiltered daily posts. Users can share Instants only with mutual followers or a Close Friends-style list that syncs across both Instagram and Instants, tightening the focus on private exchanges rather than public broadcasting. A Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch, "We're exploring multiple versions of Instants to see what people like, and will listen to our community," underlining that the test could evolve before any wider rollout.
For now, the Instagram Instants app remains confined to a handful of markets and is still labelled as a test, with no confirmed timeline for a global release. Yet its one-tap capture, one-view limit and 24-hour expiry suggest Meta sees real-time, imperfect sharing as a crucial way to keep younger users engaged and to reclaim space from Snapchat's core audience. If early feedback is positive, Instants could either grow into a permanent companion app or be folded more deeply into Instagram itself, reshaping how people share everyday moments on the platform.