Instagram Direct finally adds support for landscape and portrait images, link previews

Instagram's feature addition train isn't stopping anytime soon. Just two days ago the Facebook-owned service added new stuff into its Stories section that was 'inspired' by Snapchat's, and now we've got some new news to talk about.

Instagram Direct, the part of the service that lets you talk directly to other users, is finally getting a couple of much-needed features.

First off, when you share a photo in Direct, you no longer need to crop it if it's in portrait or landscape (so basically, anything but a square). That's because Direct will now show your images exactly in their native aspect ratio. That's progress for you right there.

Speaking of which, link previews are now a thing inside Instagram Direct as well. So when anyone shares a link into the chat, you'll see a nice preview for it, giving you slightly more information about it without requiring a tap. And if you share a phone number or address, those will be turned into links too.

The link preview functionality is live in Instagram for iOS and Android starting with version 10.22. Landscape and portrait uploads are available today on iOS, and should be "coming soon" to Android.

Source