For some reason, when sharing photos or videos to Instagram, you have the option to send them in a direct message to a user but not when you’re sharing only text.

You have to copy the text, open the Instagram app, go to the direct message section, select the contact you want to send a message to, paste the text in the textbox then tap send.

With this shortcut, that’s all fixed for you, the same as when you share media to a user directly on the Instagram app.

When sharing text through the iOS share sheet, it gives the option to send the text to instagram, it’ll open up the app, paste the shared text in the text box and present your DM contact list to send the text to multiple users.

Not sure why Instagram won’t simply apply this feature but here’s an easy workaround.