Over the course of nearly 8 years and 800+ million subscribers, Instagram's become the go-to social network for sharing photos and videos of whatever's going on in your life. Later this year, the app will finally allow users to download offline copies of their data.
Similar to the "Download Your Information" feature that Facebook introduced in 2010, this would enable Instagram users to save offline copies of their photos, videos, and direct messages. Along with ensuring you've got access to your content even if something should ever happen to Instagram, this would also make it easier for folks to grab their virtual belongings and easily take them over to another competing platform.
As great as this news is, exact details are still a bit murky. It's unclear if Instagram will also allow people to download things such as comments, likes, and stories, and there's no word as to whether or not downloads of pictures and videos will be further compressed than they already are.
Speaking to TechCrunch, a representative from Instagram said –
We'll share more details very soon when we actually launch the tool. But at a high level, it allows you to download and export what you have shared on Instagram.
This will mark the first time Instagram offers a first-party solution for easily saving offline copies of the content you share on the service, so it'll be interesting to learn more about the approach it's taking once further details emerge.
