Instagram launches video chat

Facebook today announced that Instagram, its popular photo-sharing platform, is getting support for video chats, among a couple of other new features. TechCrunch broke the news that video chat was coming to Instagram when we dug icons for the feature out of its Android code two months ago.

As Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted in his F8 keynote today, quite a few Instagram users already use the platform’s live video feature to chat with friends. “People use live video to just hang out,” he said. “It’s amazing how many of these tools are about bringing us together.”

We haven’t seen the new video chat in action, but chances are it’s a pretty straightforward feature that will expand on the existing messaging tools in Instagram.

In addition to these video chats, Instagram is also getting an improved Explore tab that, according to Zuckerberg, is “more focused on the things you are interested in.”

Instagram code reveals unreleased voice and video calling

Instagram is also getting a new filter to protect users from bullying comments. “This new filter hides comments containing attacks on a person’s appearance or character, as well as threats to a person’s well-being or health,” the Instagram team writes today. In addition to the automatic filtering, Instagram will now also get alerts when there are repeated issues with an account.

But that’s not all; Instagram is also getting support for Facebook’s AR features with AR features from third parties.

The company made the announcement at its F8 developer conference in San Jose today, where the company also announced a somewhat related new feature: group video chats in WhatsApp.

These new features will roll out over the course of the next few weeks.