How to reply to a message on Instagram

Direct messages are one of the main ways that people communicate with each other on Instagram — here’s how to reply to Instagram messages on iPhone and Android.

Despite the rise of TikTok, Instagram is consistently maintaining its status as one of the world’s most popular apps, allowing users to share pictures and videos with their followers across the world.

One of its most used features is the DM function, which lets users send direct messages to each other, whether in the form of a simple text, a photo or video, or another post that they want to send to someone directly.

Replying to people’s messages on Instagram is a very simple process, and there are multiple different ways you can access someone’s message so you can reply.

How to respond to a message on Instagram

Replying to a message on Instagram is very simple. First, you’ll need to access the chat containing the message you want to respond to – which you can do by either clicking on your device’s notification alerting you to a new message, or manually by going into your chats on the app. Simply do as follows:

1. Open Instagram.
2. Click on the messaging icon in the top right corner of the screen.
3. Scroll through the list of chats to find the one you want, then click on it.
4. In the chat, tap on the text box at the bottom of the screen, and type out the message using your device’s keyboard.
5. Once you’ve written what you want to say, tap ‘Send’ at the side of the message.

There are also other ways you can reply to messages on Instagram, including sending a picture, a sticker, or a voice note. Simply click the corresponding icons in the text box to send one of these as your reply.

In areas where Messenger features on Instagram are available, you can swipe right on a message and tap the reply icon to respond to it specifically, making clear what you are replying to.

If you want to know more about how to use Instagram, you can check out our other guides here:

How to link your Instagram account to TikTok | How to see your first-liked Instagram post | How to switch Instagram feed to chronological order | How to re-share a post to your Story on Instagram | How to make money on Instagram | How to hide likes on Instagram