Meta has confirmed it is testing a standalone image-sharing app called Instants in Spain and Italy, designed around ephemeral, unedited photo sharing between close connections. The app lets users capture and send photos that can be viewed only once and expire after 24 hours, with no editing tools, no camera roll uploads, and no filters — just a single tap to shoot and share.
Users can add text to their “instants” but cannot modify images beyond that. Sharing is limited to mutual followers or a Close Friends list, which syncs across both the standalone Instants app and the standard Instagram platform. Meta says it is testing both an in-app version and the standalone experience simultaneously to assess user preference.
The product borrows directly from a crowded playbook. Snapchat built its entire user base on disappearing content. BeReal popularized no-filter, dual-camera authenticity. Locket carved out a niche around widget-based close-friend sharing. Instagram already operates Stories — its own Snapchat-adjacent feature — which millions use daily for exactly the low-stakes sharing Instants is designed to enable. The question Meta has not yet answered is what Instants does that Stories doesn’t, beyond moving it into a separate app.
The timing carries some risk. BeReal, the most direct analog, has struggled to sustain the cultural momentum it generated at its 2022 peak. The unfiltered sharing trend proved more cyclical than structural, and Instagram’s size — now dominated by ads, algorithmic recommendations, and creator content — may make it difficult to convince users that a Meta-owned product genuinely delivers the low-pressure authenticity it is advertising.
What the test does signal clearly is that Meta is watching the erosion of Instagram’s friend-network utility. The platform’s feed has become a content discovery engine more than a social one, and younger users in particular have migrated their casual sharing to other surfaces. Instants is an acknowledgment of that drift — whether it’s a solution or a delayed reaction remains to be seen.
Instants is currently available on iOS and Android in Spain and Italy.
