Instagram is going back to school

In an attempt to… get more college students on the app, Instagram has created a new feature that will make it easier for classmates to connect with one another. The tool will enable students to join a virtual community where they can exchange direct messages.

 

Here’s how it works… to join, you must opt-in. From there, you can accept or reject messages from people that don’t follow you, or you can block people entirely. Coincidentally, IG came out with this feature days after Tinder announced Tinder U, a feature that allows users to filter for other college students. Both of these features can be used for romance, friends, or even finding a study buddy (just kidding, who is going to use it for that?).

 

All of this makes sense… because over half of Tinder users are between 18 and 24. Instagram also wants to attract younger users, so this will undoubtedly appeal to them. The new feature should be good news for Facebook (who owns IG) because it looks like Instagram will be able to continue to carry the team and FB certainly won’t do that…