Instagram Notes
The goal was simple to say and hard to do: get people sending more DMs, especially teens, and pull real conversations back into Instagram. You cannot ship a button that says “talk to your friends more.” So we ran experiments, and the feature we landed on was Notes: a short thought, up to 60 characters, pinned to the top of the inbox for 24 hours. Reply to a note and it opens a DM. It is now in front of hundreds of millions of people.
Get teens back into conversations.
The real objective was messaging: more DMs, more back and forth, especially among teens who were drifting to other apps to talk. That is hard to move directly. You cannot ship a feature called “have more conversations.” So we studied the moments that actually spark a message and ran experiments against them. Notes was the idea that won: a low-pressure prompt, sitting right where people already open to talk, that gives someone an easy reason to reach out. Reply to a note and you are in a DM.
Goal first, feature second
Started from a business goal, more messaging, and ran experiments until the right feature emerged. Notes was the answer, not the starting point.
Placed where attention already was
Anchored Notes to the inbox, the most-visited surface in the app, so adoption did not depend on a new habit.
Every note is a conversation starter
Replies land as DMs, turning a passive status into a reason to message. Exactly the behavior we were trying to grow.
Built to scale
Shipped to a global audience of hundreds of millions, with the growth and retention thinking baked in from day one.
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