On Tuesday Instagram added new functionality to its hardly ever used messaging feature, which might cause your friends to go overboard.

You can now share photos of videos from your Instagram feed in a private message with your friends using Instagram Direct. The integration is quite simple and straightforward, requiring a user to tap on a new sharing arrow just below an Instagram post. You then select a friend -- or friends -- to share with, and away it goes. Yes, Instagram now has group messaging within its app.

The added functionality is sure to increase awareness and usage, meaning you're bound to receive a new Instagram Direct message sooner or later.

Thankfully, you can mute notifications from a conversation with just a few taps. Here's how:



Launch the Instagram app and tap on the Direct icon in the top-right corner. If the icon isn't present, scroll back to the top of your Instagram stream.

Select the conversation you'd like to mute.

Tap on the "i" in the corner of your screen.

Slide the Mute Notifications with to the On position.

I couldn't find a setting to mute notifications for a set period of time, so I'm guessing you'll need to go back and unmute a conversation should you want to begin receiving alerts.

This feature could have been buried in Instagram Direct all this time, but the last message I received prior to this week's update was nearly two years ago.