Instagram has announced new features designed to help people control how they use the social network.
Instagram has announced three new features that it says will help people take control of how much time they spend on the social network.
Instagram’s new features include the ability to set times when the app will not send notifications as well as making it easier for people to control the kinds of content that they would rather not see. A new parental control option means that parents can also see their teen’s Instagram settings.
The new Quiet Mode is the headline story, though. Instagram says that any account that has Quiet Mode enabled will automatically silence all notifications and that friends and followers who send people messages while in Quiet Mode will receive an auto-reply to let them know. Instagram accounts with Quiet Mode on will also now display “in quiet mode” so that people know that they aren’t available.
What’s more, Instagram says that teens feel that they always need to be available, so it’s going to start promoting them to enable Quiet Mode after they spend a set amount of time in the app at night.
Instagram says that it’s making it easier to block content that people would rather avoid too. The change means that people can now hide multiple pieces of content at once right from the Explore tab, removing the need to do it individually. Upgrades to the Hidden Words tool also mean that people can now hide recommended posts with specific words, emojis, or hashtags in the caption.
Finally, Instagram’s upgraded parental controls now mean that parents can see their teen’s Instagram settings including privacy and content defaults and controls. What’s more, parents will receive a notification if their teen changes a setting.
Instagram has long come under fire for the way content on the app affects people, especially teens. This latest round of changes is clearly designed to help give parents more control over what their teens are doing on Instagram while also giving everyone a way to give themselves some space when they need it.
