Tumblr’s instant messaging feature is now available to everyone

Considering how instant messaging is practically essential for social networks nowadays, it’s a surprise that it’s taken Tumblr this long to release its own such feature. Due to popular demand, the website started rolling out its own instant messaging feature in small batches last month, but this morning, it announced that the service is now available to all. Alongside the release is an update that improves the feature’s functionality, such as the ability to share posts. 

Last month, Tumblr rolled out instant messaging on the web, iOS and Android to a subset of Tumblr users ahead of a broader launch. Today, the company says that all users will now have access to this feature, which introduces a way to communicate directly with others on the service, in a private, chat-like interface. Originally, the product itself was fairly bare-bones – you could text messages to others, and not much more. But now users are also able to share posts via the service, as part of this most recent update. The addition makes sense as Tumblr users are generally connecting with each other to talk about their shared interests or content on the site, as opposed to other social networks where you’re generally chatting and networking with friends. In fact, Tumblr users may only know each other by their screen names, not their real identities. Being able to share a post privately with another Tumblr user and optionally comment on what you think, then, is something that many messaging users will likely want to do.