• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, August 15, 2017

Since its birth, simplicity has been key to Instagram’s image. Even after Facebook took over, the social platform has adhered to a less-is-more design philosophy.

Yet seeing the need for more robust communication tools, Instagram has decided to roll out comment “threading” in the coming days and weeks.

“Now, when you want to reply to someone in the comments, it will create a thread, so it’s easy to keep the conversation going,” a company spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

When users hit reply underneath any comment, their response will automatically be grouped directly underneath, in a thread.

Clearly consumed with better communication features, the news comes a week after Instagram started testing a live-video feature for easy chatting among friends. More broadly, the push comes as Facebook is increasingly relying on Instagram to drive revenue growth.

This year, the picture-based network will make up 20% of Facebook’s domestic mobile revenue -- up from 15%, last year -- according to eMarketer.

Instagram recently surpassed 700 million monthly active users, while the network is adding MAUs at a record rate.

Regarding Instagram, Facebook’s CFO David Wehner recently told analysts: “We’re seeing great growth there.”