A Complete Guide to Instagram's New Live Video Group Chat (Warning, Spammer Paradise)

You can now video chat live in a direct message with your friends on Instagram!

We're thrilled about this new functionality because it makes Instagram more.... well social! And in person.

We tried it out today and we were able to get four people to join.

Tip: Scroll to the bottom to learn how to mute this feature so that only people you follow can call you and not every random person on Instagram!

It initially calls your phone just like a real call....

Then you can all hang out live and chat with each other.

It's simple to start a live video chat with your friends. Here's how.

In a group direct message (or regular direct message with one other user), click on the video camera in the top right corner.

Don't want your phone to ring for every live video call?

Simple, you can mute it on a per direct message level or account level.

To mute live calls in a specific direct message, click on the name of the direct message.

For the account level to shut it off completely, go to Settings on your profile:

Then scroll down to "notifications".

Then scroll to the very bottom. Here you can turn it"on" or "off" for everyone or just keep it on for people you follow.

We can see this being a spammer's paradise, so we'll just be turning it on for the people we follow.