If you've ever wished Instagram felt a little more like Snapchat, Meta apparently heard you - and took notes. The company has quietly launched a new standalone app called Instants, currently being tested in Italy and Spain, that lets users send photos that vanish after 24 hours and can only be viewed once. Sound familiar? It should.
Business Insider first reported the launch, and The Verge confirmed the app is live on both iOS and Android in those two markets. There's no word yet on whether a desktop version is planned, or when - or if - the app will roll out to other regions.
So what does Instants actually do?
The core idea is pretty stripped back: share a photo, it disappears. The 24-hour window and single-view mechanic are essentially the same formula Snapchat built its entire identity on back in 2011. Meta has borrowed from Snapchat before, most notably when Instagram added Stories in 2016, a move that was widely mocked at the time but turned out to be enormously successful.
Whether Instants follows a similar path is the real question. The disappearing photo space has gotten crowded and a little complicated over the years - Snapchat is still very much alive, BeReal carved out its own niche before losing momentum, and plenty of other apps have tried and faded. Meta is betting there's still appetite for this kind of casual, low-stakes sharing, just with Instagram's massive built-in user base attached.
Why Meta keeps doing this
It's worth being real about what's happening here: Meta is very good at identifying features that work elsewhere and rebuilding them inside its own ecosystem. It's not always elegant, but it often works. Instagram Reels, for example, launched as an obvious TikTok competitor and has become a core part of how people use the platform.
Launching in Italy and Spain first suggests this is still in early testing mode - Meta wants to see how real users engage with it before committing to a wider rollout. If the numbers look good, expect to see Instants show up in your app store before long.
For now, if you're outside those two markets, there's nothing to do but wait and see whether this one sticks or quietly disappears - which, fittingly, is kind of the whole point.
