A native Android client for Instagram Direct — just the messages, none of the feed.
The point is to cut screen time and stop doomscrolling while keeping the inbox. Instagram's own app drops you into an endless feed, Reels, and Stories on every launch; the one thing I actually wanted to keep was talking to people. Instachat is a from-scratch DM-only client: inbox, conversations, sending messages, reactions, media, and read receipts — with no feed, no Reels, no explore, nothing to scroll.
It's also a personal playground for exploring a modern Android stack end to end — 100% Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, and Material 3 Expressive — with the UI built from scratch, independent of the official app.
The architectural trick is the data backend: rather than reimplementing the web client's auth from scratch, the app keeps a single long-lived WebView on the authenticated Instagram web session and runs each operation from inside the page itself, so the browser handles session state natively.
Stack: Kotlin · Jetpack Compose (Material 3 Expressive) · Hilt · Coroutines · KotlinX Serialization · Coil · Media3. Build with ./gradlew :app:assembleDebug.
 Chats |
 Conversation |
 Media viewer |
Screenshots use mock data; avatars from pravatar.cc, images from picsum.photos, video from Big Buck Bunny.
This is a personal, educational project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Meta or Instagram in any way, and "Instagram" is a trademark of its respective owner. It talks to Instagram through unofficial means and is therefore not compatible with Instagram's Terms of Use — using it may put your account at risk of restriction or suspension. It is shared as-is, for learning and personal use only, with no warranty. Use it at your own risk.
Licensed under the MIT License.
The bundled typeface is Google Sans Flex, used under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.