Redesigning the professional inbox for instagram creators and businesses

Instagram serves over 120 million active professional accounts, including creators, influencers, and businesses. Professionals with high volumes of messages struggle to identify the most important messages, frequently miss messages in their inbox, and forget to follow up. Managing chats is a limitation to growing their business. Additionally, the current Professional Inbox infrastructure is not scalable, making it challenging for multiple teams to build into it effectively.

Role

Design lead

Team

Instagram Direct for Professionals

Redesigning the professional inbox for instagram creators and businesses

Instagram serves over 120 million active professional accounts, including creators, influencers, and businesses. Professionals with high volumes of messages struggle to identify the most important messages, frequently miss messages in their inbox, and forget to follow up. Managing chats is a limitation to growing their business. Additionally, the current Professional Inbox infrastructure is not scalable, making it challenging for multiple teams to build into it effectively.

Role

Design lead

Team

Instagram Direct for Professionals

Redesigning the professional inbox for instagram creators and businesses

Instagram serves over 120 million active professional accounts, including creators, influencers, and businesses. Professionals with high volumes of messages struggle to identify the most important messages, frequently miss messages in their inbox, and forget to follow up. Managing chats is a limitation to growing their business. Additionally, the current Professional Inbox infrastructure is not scalable, making it challenging for multiple teams to build into it effectively.

Role

Design lead

Team

Instagram Direct for Professionals

Challenges with the current inbox architecture

Users have to sift through multiple unmarked folders, leading to missed opportunities and valuable messages getting lost. The absence of organizational capabilities means important messages often get buried under lower-value interactions. Additionally, the existing inbox structure (Primary/General/Requests) is unclear and does not support efficient context-switching, making it difficult for professionals to separate urgent messages from less critical ones. The folder-based model only allows for a maximum of four categories, restricting flexibility in testing new use cases.

Challenges with the current inbox architecture

Users have to sift through multiple unmarked folders, leading to missed opportunities and valuable messages getting lost. The absence of organizational capabilities means important messages often get buried under lower-value interactions. Additionally, the existing inbox structure (Primary/General/Requests) is unclear and does not support efficient context-switching, making it difficult for professionals to separate urgent messages from less critical ones. The folder-based model only allows for a maximum of four categories, restricting flexibility in testing new use cases.

Challenges with the current inbox architecture

Users have to sift through multiple unmarked folders, leading to missed opportunities and valuable messages getting lost. The absence of organizational capabilities means important messages often get buried under lower-value interactions. Additionally, the existing inbox structure (Primary/General/Requests) is unclear and does not support efficient context-switching, making it difficult for professionals to separate urgent messages from less critical ones. The folder-based model only allows for a maximum of four categories, restricting flexibility in testing new use cases.

Testing and aligning on mental models

I conducted to envision a more scalable and intuitive inbox organization for 2022 which would encapsulate short term and long term organizational needs for businesses.

Testing and aligning on mental models

I conducted to envision a more scalable and intuitive inbox organization for 2022 which would encapsulate short term and long term organizational needs for businesses.

Testing and aligning on mental models

I conducted to envision a more scalable and intuitive inbox organization for 2022 which would encapsulate short term and long term organizational needs for businesses.

Business and creator inbox concept prototypes

Concept prototypes

We learned that Professionals want to first see all of their messages up front, along with a mix of automated and manual categorization. Creators and businesses have distinct organizational needs—creators prefer exclusive folders to manage thread volume and separate important conversations from low-value ones, while businesses need all messages in a unified view to avoid missing new opportunities. Message requests must remain separate for integrity reasons, with businesses wanting selective requests in their main inbox, whereas creators, who often face harassment, prefer them isolated. Contextual actions like spam control, privacy settings, and multi-select editing enhance organization and user well-being.

We developed some principles and frameworks

We developed some principles and frameworks

We developed some principles and frameworks

A new inbox for professionals

Unblocks teams building into the inbox as well as empowers Professionals to better find and prioritize their chats.

A new inbox for professionals

Unblocks teams building into the inbox as well as empowers Professionals to better find and prioritize their chats.

A new inbox for professionals

Unblocks teams building into the inbox as well as empowers Professionals to better find and prioritize their chats.

Flexible inbox for both user types

Flexible base inbox can accommodate unique needs of both main users.

Flexible inbox for both user types

Flexible base inbox can accommodate unique needs of both main users.

Flexible inbox for both user types

Flexible base inbox can accommodate unique needs of both main users.

Where we are today

Today the team has released a few milestones of this project. It’s been maintained for a few years indicating the results have been positive.

Where we are today

Today the team has released a few milestones of this project. It’s been maintained for a few years indicating the results have been positive.

Where we are today

Today the team has released a few milestones of this project. It’s been maintained for a few years indicating the results have been positive.

Business inbox

Live product recording 2025

Creator inbox

Live product recording 2025