Instagram is adding a DM scheduling feature before anyone can schedule posts

Instagram adds a schedule option . Social media expert Lindsey Gamble and Instagram confirmed for TechCrunch that it releases scheduled DMs to all users.

When writing a message, just hold the send button and you can select a date and time. It appears that messages can be scheduled up to 29 days in advance. Until all leaked messages are sent, you will see a banner that says something like “x scheduled messages”.

This will be convenient for people who want to plan birthday messages for a bunch of friends at once or, for example, remind someone to pick them up from the airport on a certain day. It will also be useful for people who tend to take care of correspondence at night and do not want everyone to know how late they stay up. This is definitely not something I ever do with emails.

It’s worth noting that Instagram is rolling out this DM scheduling feature before all users can . For now, this feature is limited to people who have .

Meanwhile, Instagram is rolling out a few limited-time features at the end of the year to help you celebrate the holidays and your memories of 2024. First, there’s a collage tool for Stories that has an end-of-the-year theme. Based on the images shared by Instagram, it looks like you can use a Happy New Year overlay.

There are tons of templates to add your own based on and around the New Year, such as one you can use to invite friends to share photos in a How 2024 Started/How 2024 Ended format. If you hit the like button on Stories at the end of the year, you’ll see a custom effect. It has a Christmas font and countdown text effect for stories, reels and feed posts.

Festive chat topics for the holidays include New Years, one called “chill” and of course another based on Mariah Carey. Last but not least, if you use certain holiday-based emojis or phrases like “Happy New Year” or “hello 2025” in DMs or notes before the end of the year, you’ll see a little Easter egg of some sort.