How to DM in Instagram

Sending a direct message from the app

The steps are the same on iPhone and Android:

1. Tap Messages at the bottom.
2. Tap Compose in the top right.
3. Select one person, or several for a group chat.
4. Type your message.
5. Tap Send.

For someone you follow there is a shorter route: open their profile and tap Message. Either way, the message stays in the chat. It does not show up in your feed, in search or on your profile.

How to DM on Instagram from a computer

Messages work in a desktop browser too, with the buttons in different places:

1. Click Messages on the left.
2. Click Compose in the top left.
3. Select the people you want to message, then click Chat.
4. Type the message, or click Add photo or video to attach one from your computer.
5. Click Send.

The profile route works here as well: open the profile of someone you follow and click Message.

When the person does not follow you

You can message anyone on Instagram, but where the message lands depends on the connection between you:

The text only rule is the one that trips people up. A first message to a stranger cannot carry a photo, a video or a voice note, so put what matters into words. How requests look from the other side, and why businesses miss them, is in what DM means in social media.

What you can send in an Instagram DM

• Text, with an effect if you tap Search instead of Send.
• A photo or video from your library, through Add photo or video, and you can add stickers, a drawing or text to a photo first.
• A disappearing photo or video, through Camera, to people who follow you or have already approved your messages.
• A message for later, since a message can be scheduled to send at another time.
• A quiet message: type / to see commands, such as /silent, which sends without a notification.
• A mention: type @ to notify someone, in chats with 3 or more people.
• A channel message, if you run a channel: one account posting to many members, covered in what channels on Instagram are.

If a chat starts disappearing on its own, vanish mode is probably on; how to turn off vanish mode covers the swipe that switches it off.

Sending someone a post, reel or carousel

1. Tap Share below the post.
2. Pick people or group chats from the list, or tap Search to find someone.
3. Tap Write a message to add a note if you want one.
4. Tap Send, or Send separately to send it to each person in their own chat.

Two details matter. The person who posted it is not notified that you shared it. And if it comes from a private account, only people who follow that account can see it in your chat.

How to edit or unsend a DM

Both start the same way: tap and hold the message you sent.

• Edit is there for 15 minutes after sending, and each message can be edited up to 5 times. Change the text and tap Send; the word Edited appears above it. A message that contains a mention or a command cannot be edited.
• Unsend removes the message for everyone in the chat.

Neither one reaches back in time. The other person may have read the message already, in the chat or in a notification. An unread notification is replaced by your edit, but anything they have seen, they have seen. If the chat is reported, the edit history and unsent messages can be part of the report.

Limits on sending messages

Instagram limits messages to stop the ones people do not want, such as spam. If you are warned about sending too many and carry on, you may not be able to send messages for a while. No number per day or per hour is published, and figures quoted elsewhere could not be traced to Instagram.

One limit is published: you can forward a message to up to 5 chats at a time. The same logic runs through how many people you can follow on Instagram, where the follow limit exists for the same anti spam reason.

DMs for a business account

For a brand, the inbox is often where a sale actually happens. A few habits keep it that way:

• Check requests daily. Customers who do not follow you land there, and their messages only move to your main inbox once you accept.
• Do not send cold DMs in bulk. The sending limits exist to stop exactly that, and a stranger's first message can only be text anyway.
• Sort the inbox. Business accounts can label chats, such as Lead or Paid; the steps are in how to change the chat theme in Instagram, alongside pinned chats.

If your DMs are busy enough to need someone on them, the Instagram management service includes the inbox.

How we will test this

Not run yetEverything above comes from the published sources listed below, and nothing here is presented as something we measured. Our own test on live accounts has not been run yet.

This is the test we will run: we send a first message from a test account to an account that does not follow it, on iPhone, Android and a desktop browser, and record where it lands, what the request looks like on the other side, and which attachments the app refuses before acceptance.

Platforms change behavior without announcing it, so once the first test is run we repeat it every quarter, and this section will say when it was run and on which devices and app versions.

Sources

Read on October 1, 2026.

• Instagram Help Center, Send a message to someone on Instagram
• Instagram Help Center, Who you can send messages to on Instagram
• Instagram Help Center, Edit a message you've sent on Instagram
• Instagram Help Center, Unsend a message you've sent in a chat on Instagram
• Instagram Help Center, Why there are limits for sending messages on Instagram
• Instagram Help Center, Share a post you see on Instagram to a chat

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