Instants

Instants is a social app from Instagram that allows you to share time-limited photos and videos with your contacts. Unlike Instagram itself, where the only temporary option is Stories, on Instants you can share more casual posts that only stay up for 24 hours, similar to Snapchat. As such, you can upload content without having to be so careful, safe in the knowledge that it will end up disappearing shortly after being viewed.

Fast camera and direct sending

The Instants interface guides you directly to the camera, ready for you to capture what you have in front of you without wasting time navigating through menus, and with no possibility of sending content from the Gallery. After taking the photo, you can add a short text to it if you want and send it to your friends instantly, but you can't edit anything else. The app allows you to choose who sees the content: all friends, or just a select list of best friends. You can only send Instants to followers that you follow back. As a result, you decide who is part of this exclusive group, which gives you the peace of mind to share informal situations, funny faces, or boring moments that you wouldn't upload to your public profile. Your inbox will only show messages from those selected people.

Time-limited messages and privacy

When your friend opens the photo, it is automatically deleted without a trace. To protect your privacy, Instants prevents screenshots from being taken, but that doesn't stop someone from using the app on an emulator or taking photos of their device's screen with another device or camera, so you must carefully filter who is on your friends list in order to know who can see your content.

Quick responses and reactions

When you receive a photo, you can reply in the same way: with another snapshot or a quick reaction on the screen. The app encourages this "photo-for-photo" method instead of long text threads, turning conversations into more dynamic and visual exchanges. Unlike Instagram stories, however, here you won't know who has viewed your content, you will only see the reactions and messages.

My experience with Instants

As soon as I opened the app, I set up my list by adding four close friends. After that, I was able to start taking photos of my afternoon walk with my dog, which usually gets more reactions from my friends than when I post things about myself. Most of them reacted with heart emojis, and a friend replied with a picture of himself walking his dog.

What I liked most about Instants and what could be improved

· What I liked most: The camera opens very quickly and I appreciated the peace of mind of knowing that the photos disappear and that screenshots cannot be taken, which takes a lot of pressure off what to share.

· What could be improved: There could be the option to create different subgroups within the main list to separate contexts, such as work friends and lifelong friends.

Download the Instants APK and share the moments of your day-to-day with the people who matter most to you through instant photos that leave no trace.