Instagram’s New Video Calling Feature And What You Can Do With It

Here’s what you need to know about the new Instagram video calling feature

A little bit over a week ago, Instagram announced to the world its new app, IGTV. An app from where users can post and watch videos longer than one minute.

Now, it would have been understandable if developers took some time off before amazing us with something else. However, far from doing that, they continued to work and brought us a new update that has fascinated many people.

We are talking about the new Instagram video calling feature. A feature that was rumored to be launched since January 2018 and that is now finally here.

So, as we often do in many of our posts, we will examine every detail of this new update and determine how good it is.

Rumors

The rumors of the video calling feature becoming a reality started a little over 5 months ago. It was mentioned for the first time in January of this year, and of course, the information caused a lot of people to feel excited about the new possible arrival.

However, back then Instagram did not confirm nor denied they were indeed going to launch such feature. In fact, they only limited to say they were always working to make their users have a better experience.

Due to this fact, it was not clear whether the photo-sharing app was actually going to amaze us with the feature already mentioned or not.

But, in May of this year, the rumors were confirmed to be true. Instagram finally admitted video calling was going to be possible to use from within the app.

And now in July 2018, we are finally able to use it.

Competitors

We live in a world where technology is already part of our lives. Therefore, we need to understand video calling is not something new. In fact, the first video call ever was made in 1970 thanks to the American telecommunications company AT&T.

Of course, years later when mobile apps became a thing, this feature was no longer something new. Platforms such as Skype, Viber, Line and more took over and won the online market.

But, if all these platforms already implemented this feature. Why did Instagram do it as well? What makes them unique?

Well, think of it like this: Instagram has made sure to launch new updates every few months, in some cases even every few weeks. In a few words, this means Instagram is one of the most complete apps on the market right now.

Its number of features allows its users to do a wide variety of things without even having to leave the application. For example, years ago Instagram only allowed its users to upload photos and add filters.

Now you can share videos, chat with your friends, add gifts to your photos and so much more. People like to have all in one place, so Instagram adding the video calling feature is for sure a great win.

The photo-sharing app has now over a billion active users. So we would like to ask:  If you could do everything you want in one single app, would you still want to use another?

How to make a Video call

Now that we have gone over some important aspects of this new feature, let’s see how you can start using it.

Using the new Instagram video call feature is easy, you just have to follow these steps:

1. Update Instagram to its latest version
2. Go to your Direct Messages
3. Select the person you want to have a video call with
4. Tap the camera icon on the top right
5. Wait until your video call is answered

As you can notice, making a video call is not complicated at all. In fact, all you need to do is to tap the options that are on your phone.

Now, there are a few more things you can do with this feature. For example, when you are in the middle of a video call you can turn your camera on and off, you can mute the audio, you can go back to browse on Instagram while you are still on the video call, and of course, you can also switch from your front-facing camera to your back camera.

Group Video Calls

Instagram has also made sure to add a way for people to have group video calls. So far the photo-sharing app allows up to 4 people to be in the same screen at the time.

Now, to be able to add more than one person to the conversation, all you need to do is to create a chat group with the people you want to participate. Then click the video icon on the top right and voilà

Final Thoughts

We are not surprised about Instagram launching this update. In fact, we were expecting it to come. What fascinated us though, is how easy this new feature is to use.

Therefore, we can only conclude by saying people are simply going to love it. After all, what is there not to love?. Instagram users can now do one more thing without having to leave the photo-sharing app.