As someone who works on Instagram Direct, I can assure you we have ephemeral messaging.

How do you stop people from recording their messages?

Snapchat takes two approaches (that I know of): First, they don't stop it, but the messager is supposed to be notified when it happens. They know this doesn't work and can't work, though; avoiding screenshot detection isn't even considered a reportable bug. (see https://hackerone.com/snapchat )

Second, they have a legal barrier, in that using a third-party client to communicate over Snapchat violates their terms of service.

Notably, neither of those makes the messages any more ephemeral. This makes sense, because stopping people from recording messages that you send them is not an achievable goal. Barring some sort of supernatural influence, it's no more achievable for Instagram than it is for Snapchat.

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.

As someone from the Bay Area, please tell me where $2500 will get you 2 months of rent. Unless of course you mean a single room with a handful of roommates.

I sent an email to the link you provided last month as well as a separate one to your lead iOS dev and didn't even get a canned response. What gives?

I'm thinking of moving to Calgary - I'm currently in Saskatoon. What is a decent price for a developer in Calgary? I'm an iOS dev with 4 years experience (I've worked on about two dozen apps, and have ~10 on the store I've worked on, including 4 of my own). I know of a place that will pay at least starting 70k, it may have gone up since I last checked (I wouldn't guess more than 75). They do also offer bonuses and what not and company stake for vc created stuff, but I'm not really sure if that's a good wage or not. There aren't many places in Saskatoon doing mobile work right now, and to be honest that looks a lot more promising than stuff locally.

Is 4 years your sum total? If so, 70k is fantastic in Calgary for that experience. Plus, depending on your needs/wants, 70k (without huge consumer debt) is enough to live quite nicely in Calgary right now.

If you managed to grab a job working directly for an Oil & Gas dept doing mobile (they exist), you'd be able to command 90k+. Work would likely be boring though - but you'd get impressive bonuses, benefits and other stuff that you'll never find at the mobile agencies that exist in this city. Most of the agencies are marketing houses - development isn't treated as a priority at most of them.

I will tell you this - mobile dev experience (especially iOS) is hard to find in this city - make sure you get as much as you can for your experience level.

4 years of iOS. I've been using php/MySQL and all the other jazz for about a decade. I'd also say I've got solid design skills.

You're basically gold to any agency here then :)

Development + Design is like finding a unicorn. You should be aiming much higher then 70k.

I'm finding a hard time finding people who even care - they either want to hire a developer or hire a designer. I feel like I'd need to jump in with a startup or into a company with few employees to get the commendation.