Meta is testing a new standalone app called Instants that lets users share disappearing photos with friends - photos that can be viewed only once and vanish after 24 hours. The experimental app signals Meta's continued interest in ephemeral content, even as the company doubles down on AI-powered feeds across its main platforms. It's a surprising move that resurrects the playbook Snapchat pioneered over a decade ago, raising questions about whether there's still appetite for yet another photo-sharing app in Meta's sprawling ecosystem.
Instagram is quietly testing Instants, a new standalone app that brings ephemeral photo sharing back to basics. Users can send photos to friends that disappear after a single view and automatically delete after 24 hours - a familiar concept that feels like déjà vu in Meta's ongoing battle to own every flavor of social sharing.
The test was first spotted by TechCrunch on Thursday, though Meta hasn't publicly announced the experiment or revealed how widely it's being tested. The app appears designed for close friends rather than broadcast sharing, stripping away the performance anxiety that's come to define Instagram's main feed.
It's a strategy Meta knows well. The company famously copied Snapchat's Stories format in 2016, turning what seemed like shameless mimicry into one of Instagram's most successful features. Stories now boasts over 500 million daily users across Instagram alone. But standalone apps have been trickier - Meta shut down its Snapchat clone Bolt in 2015, killed the teens-only Lifestage app in 2017, and saw its Threads app (the first one, for close friends) quietly fade into obscurity.
The timing is interesting. As Instagram increasingly fills feeds with AI-recommended content from strangers, there's growing demand for intimate sharing spaces. Users have been gravitating toward Instagram's Close Friends feature and private group chats - spaces where they can share without algorithmic amplification or performance metrics. Instants seems designed to capture that energy in a dedicated app.
The 24-hour expiration window and single-view restriction create artificial scarcity that could drive engagement. It's the same psychological trick that made Snapchat addictive in its early days - the fear of missing out combined with the thrill of temporary content. Whether that formula still works in 2026, when users are drowning in notifications and suffering from app fatigue, remains to be seen.
Meta's experimental app strategy has become more aggressive under its Reality Labs division, which has been testing everything from VR social spaces to AI chat companions. But consumer-facing social apps remain hit-or-miss. The company's newest Threads app (the Twitter competitor, not the old Close Friends one) gained 100 million users in five days last year but has struggled with retention as the initial hype faded.
The disappearing photo concept also bumps up against privacy concerns that have dogged Meta for years. While Snapchat built its reputation on messages that vanish, Meta has faced repeated scandals over data retention and content moderation. Users might hesitate to trust a Meta app with supposedly ephemeral content, especially after revelations that Instagram keeps deleted photos and messages longer than users expect.
What makes Instants different from just using Instagram's existing disappearing messages feature isn't clear from the limited information available. Meta already offers disappearing photos in Instagram DMs, temporary stories, and even a vanish mode in Messenger. The company seems to be betting that a dedicated app creates a different context - perhaps more spontaneous, less curated, more like texting photos than posting them.
Competitors are watching closely. Snapchat has been fighting to maintain relevance as Instagram absorbed its best features, while newer apps like BeReal captured Gen Z attention with authentic, unfiltered sharing. If Instants gains traction, it could signal that there's still room for focused, purpose-built social apps even as Meta consolidates features into its main platforms.
For now, Instants remains an experiment. Meta has a history of testing features with small user groups before either rolling them out widely, absorbing them into existing apps, or killing them entirely. The company declined to comment on whether Instants would see a public launch or how it fits into Instagram's broader product roadmap.
Instants represents Meta's ongoing struggle to balance innovation with consolidation - should new features live in flagship apps or stand alone? The answer matters beyond this single experiment. As social platforms become algorithmic content machines optimized for engagement and ad revenue, users are craving smaller, more intimate digital spaces. Whether Instants becomes the next Stories or joins Meta's pile of abandoned experiments will depend on something the company can't easily engineer - whether people actually want another app from Meta, or if they're finally suffering from Facebook fatigue.
