Kevin Systrom

http://vimeo.com/81527238

During its press event held in New York City today, Instagram announced a new sharing feature called Instagram Direct that will allow users to share images and videos to other users privately.

The new sharing model will require users to follow each other to send photos and messages privately to individuals or groups of up to 15 people. A pending requests inbox will catch photos and messages from users who are not mutually connected.

Instagram also noted its growth from 80 million users to 150 million users worldwide from the start of 2013 to today. Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram, also boasted that over half of Instagram’s users use the service daily…

Instagram on its new Direct feature:

From how you capture photos and videos to the way you start conversations through likes and comments, we built Instagram Direct to feel natural to the Instagram experience you already know. When you open Instagram, you’ll now see a new icon in the top right corner of your home feed. Tap it to open your inbox where you’ll see photos and videos that people have sent to you. To send a photo or video to specific people, tap the camera button to enter the same simple photo or video capture and editing screens. At the top of the share screen, you’ll see the option to share with your followers (“Followers”) or to send to specific people (“Direct”). To send using Direct, tap the names of the people you want to send your photo or video to, write your caption, tap “send” and you’re done.

After sending, you’ll be able to find out who’s seen your photo or video, see who’s liked it and watch your recipients commenting in real time as the conversation unfolds.

Instagram Direct will be available in Instagram 5.0 for Android on the Play Store today.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg just announced that the social network has acquired photo-sharing app “Instagram” for $1 billion. Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom also made a statement through the company’s blog and confirmed it will “be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network.” Instagram’s Android app just launched last week to nearly 2,000 signups a minute and a million downloads in 24 hours.

Zuckerberg’s full announcement is below, and Facebook’s official press release is here:

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While iPhone users might not be happy that their beloved photo-sharing app has finally made its way to Android, over a million users of Google’s platform have downloaded the app in its first 24 hours of availability. Google Play now lists 1 million to 5 million installs and the company’s Chief Executive Officer Kevin Systrom told The New York Times that the app is experiencing over 2,000 signups per minute.

There was clearly huge anticipation for the app, which has been available on iOS since October 2010, with over 430,000 people preregistered to download the app before its official launch yesterday. Instagram is currently home to over 30 million registered users on iOS, and it took the app approximately six months to hit the 5 million-user mark, according to CBS. Of course, the Android version would pass that milestone this week if it continues at its current rate.

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