The world of social media is continuing to evolve choices about how "social" users want to be. On Thursday, just a few days after Twitter opened up Direct Messaging for photo sharing, Facebook-owned Instagram announced Instagram Direct.

While many see the announcement by Instagram as a response to the more selective and private social media network, SnapChat (which Facebook has been losing teens to in recent months), Instagram said in its announcement that the key users for Instagram Direct are networks of close friends.

"Over the past three years, the Instagram community has grown to over 150 million people capturing and sharing moments all around the globe," said Instagram's blog. "There are, however, moments in our lives that we want to share, but that will be the most relevant only to a smaller group of people-an inside joke between friends captured on the go, a special family moment or even just one more photo of your new puppy. Instagram Direct helps you share these moments."

Social media users often rack up a lot of users they follow and, if they're lucky and/or good, a lot of followers. But some messages or photos being shared on these networks are simply not interesting for the majority of users. Instagram Direct, along with Twitter Direct Messaging (which the company has increasingly made more accessible and easier to use) are ways for users to "narrowcast" the most important content to a more select audience. Some may say that's what email is for, but email can be more cumbersome to use on mobile devices, especially compared to Instagram's integrated photography tools.

How it Works

Users will be able to Instagram Direct anywhere from one to 15 users, and users don't have to follow in order to receive the photos in their inbox. Instead, they just agree to accept and view the photo, or not.

Instagram Direct inboxes will be available on the top right corner of users home feeds, and similarly, to send a direct Instagram photo or video, click "Direct" at the top right of the share screen. Senders will be able to find out who has seen the photo from the select group, who's liked it, and any comments, in real time.

Better Signal to Noise on Social Media

On a broader scale, options like Instagram Direct and Twitter Direct Messaging may increase the "signal to noise" ratio throughout social media. For example, the much-parodied (or hated) "food Instagram" is actually a completely valid thing to send someone - like a friend who might have recommended the restaurant. It's just that, until now, the only option with Instagram was to send out that picture to absolutely everyone that follows you. Multiply that times the number of users on Instagram following each other, and you've got far too many photos of food.

On the smaller scale, the signal from a sender gets through unobstructed. The people you Instagram "Directly" will have a separate channel - apart from the morass of photos from all of the other users they follow - in order to get important Instagrams meant for their eyes, without having to search through a long list to find it in their feed.

Privacy

Of course, privacy sounds anathema to the entire concept of social media. But in some cases, having the option to share without sharing with everyone is important. For example, parents will be able to share photos of their kids with only those they choose and vacationers will be able to share fun moments in real time without having to worry about broadcasting the fact that they're away from home.

Instagram Direct is available on Instagram version 5.0 for iOS and Android. Windows Phones will get the feature a little later.