Perhaps, if you do not have teenagers close to you, you have not heard of Instagram’s video bomb. It involves sending photos or videos in real time on Instagram. It is not new, as it has been a reality since 2016.

A temporary—or self-destructing—photo or video can be sent as an individual direct message or to a group. Once a user opens the temporary content received, the message will no longer appear in the inbox, unless you have allowed the message to be viewed a second time (pay close attention to this if you are sending sensitive information).This is very common among teenagers.

How to send a temporary, self-destructing photo or video on Instagram?

1. Tap at the top right of the screen. You can also go to the inbox to reply to temporary photos or videos you have received.
2. Next, you can:
   • Select next to the group or the user’s name, or the person you want to send a temporary, self-destructing, or bomb photo or video to.
   • Click Search, click the username of the person you are looking for, and then .
   • Select to send a new group message, then select the people you want to send it to, and click Chat, then .
   • Please note that when you send a message to a group, a single group conversation starts in which any member can participate. Be careful if you later send something sensitive—everyone will see it.
3. Tap the circle at the bottom of the screen to take a photo or video and then you can add effects.
4. You can:
   • Select «View once» to allow the person or group receiving the photo or video to view it only once.
   • Select «Allow replay» to repeat the photo or video, allowing the recipient to open and view the content one more time before it disappears.
   • Click «Keep in chat» to keep a preview of the photo or video in the conversation.
5. Click Send at the bottom of the screen.

You can only send temporary photos or videos to people who follow you, or who do not follow you but have approved your messages.

If you send other types of content via Instagram Direct (for example, news posts, text, or hashtags), those messages will not disappear and will remain visible in the conversation.

What risks can sending video bombs on Instagram via DM entail?

By law, Instagram—or, in other words, Facebook—stores our data for a minimum period of 1 year. The main reason is that if those data are requested in legal proceedings, Instagram can provide them.

Even if the profile is deleted, no longer used, or the messages have been deleted. Be careful with how you manage your privacy and intimacy. Actions we think are private may not be as private as we believe. But be careful: it is still intimate content that could end up becoming public against the user’s wishes.

iPhone users have the option to use a native feature: screen video recording with audio. This way, they can capture the Instagram user’s video bombs when the sender may think that is not possible. Where there’s a law, there’s a loophole.

The same applies to Android phones, tablets, or any user’s desktop version of Instagram.

Not all Instagram accounts are secure.

We recall the post from October 19 about the vulnerability of Instagram reports/followers apps, followers +. We are all equally exposed, but if, in addition, digital identity is not managed properly, the risk increases.

Many may end up thinking the following: «it does not matter if I get hacked, I am nobody». Perhaps the user should also reflect that nobody messages themselves, and that privacy is not the only thing that should matter, but also other people’s privacy.

In fact, it is each user’s responsibility to ensure privacy, data security, and the security of others. Failing to do so can have legal consequences, even if you are a minor.

Have you had any hacking or privacy issues during this lockdown?

Off topic:

At onBRANDING, we recommend episode 8 of season 1 of the series Merlí, from 2016-11-08, in which an intimate video of a student, Mònica, spreads around the school.