I disagree with your first point, if you're using Instagram you're accepting it will be using a lot of data. Further, part of the thing that makes Stories a great feature is the smooth storytelling that would be lost if a "Download this video" button appeared.

I completely agree with your second point however. Make it more like Snapchat and have both types of direct messages; ephemeral and permanent.

> if you're using Instagram you're accepting it will be using a lot of data

You're in favor of autoplay that can't be disabled?

> You're in favor of autoplay that can't be disabled?

Especially not for fucking ads. Worst is: most Instagram videos are crapshoots. Low quality, high compression - typical for selfie videos. Which means they're tolerable. But story ads tend to be high-quality productions... requiring sometimes 10+MB.

For reference: common smartphone data plans in Germany are 1-3 GB per month, for 10-30€. 5GB offers are rare and you won't get more than 10 even with expensive business packages.

You can get anything you want with expensive business packages, including unlimited data. I use a wifi hotspot using an unlimited and fast LTE connection whenever I business travel (not sure what they pay for it, I think we even have boxes that pool multiple providers but personally I never used them). Telekom even publically advertises an unlimited LTE plan nowadays (but that is 200€ a month).

However, the typical consumer plans are pretty limited.

Hi,

I also live in Germany and my experience is a little different. I know several people with 6gb plans for less than 20€, and if you're willing to pay 30€+/mo then 10/15/20gb LTE plans are possible.

Have you tried a comparison site such as Check24? You'll usually find great deals on high data packages. You might have to sacrifice on SMS or Telephone minutes for a high data plan though.

Most of the cheap plans are prepaid or resellers, which often enough don't give LTE or limit the speed. Or they're using the O2 network which you can't really use for anything that demands bandwidth or performance or if you need good countrywide coverage.

Also, all non-first-class customers (i.e. everyone except direct contract customers of the three telcos) get lower priority on the network, both for calls and data.

Most of the cheap plans are prepaid or resellers but those that advertise LTE really do give LATE in my experience.

The O2 network here is terrible for 4G I agree the other two are much better.

Is the lower priority actually noticeable though? Like have their been any third party tests? I'd never heard that until today but it does make sense I guess. They want their own traffic to come first.

> Most of the cheap plans are prepaid or resellers but those that advertise LTE really do give LATE in my experience.

The question is, which level of LTE? If it's capped at anything between 10-15 MBit/s there will be no advantage over HSDPA, versus the 150+ MBit/s you can get via proper LTE.

> The O2 network here is terrible for 4G I agree the other two are much better.

Yeah, but markedly more expensive.

> Is the lower priority actually noticeable though?

Go to any bigger event, say a huge anti-nazi rally, Oktoberfest or rock festivals. I was in Cologne a couple of weeks, approximately 20k people attended. My LTE tablet (O2) had no internet at all. My business phone (Vodafone) had proper internet access, and my private cellphone (Lebara, using Telekom network which is inarguably the best) had massive issues.

Can confirm this issue 1:1, I'm on a 150M plan for 4€ atm.

Using the web is becoming a pain due to this waste of data, at least IRC still works.

Are you saying there are Instagram story ads? I never encountered those. Only ads on my feed. I'm on iOS and use Mozilla's Focus content blocker (which seems to have been pulled from the App Store and replaced by Firefox Klar).

Yep there are, approx. 1-2 a day. I'm on Android, they seem to be rolling out changes in waves, not all at once, though - you may simply be left in a bucket without story ads...

You can send a normal photo in Direct. Just hit the photo icon instead of the camera icon in a thread.

That's cumbersome - I have to take the photo first using normal Camera app, then switch back to Instagram, and then choose the photo. But still, better than nothing - thanks for the hint.