Instagram is introducing new features to help people manage what they see and how much time they spend on the app.
The moves to allow people to have more control could be a reflection of parent company Facebook's tweaks to protect users' "well-being" on its platform. Facebook admitted in December that using its products could have negative effects on mood and mental health.
The company said Tuesday the company is rolling out a feature to mute people in your main feed over the next few weeks. With this feature, a person will be able to click on the three dots in the upper right corner above a user's post. A menu will appear, with the option to mute the user's posts or mute the user's post and stories.
"Mute can make your feed even more personalized to what matters to you," an Instagram spokesperson told CNBC. "We've also heard it may be a useful tool for managing complex social dynamics."
Currently, you are allowed to "mute" selected Instagram Stories. Here's how it works: Just tap and hold the profile picture of the person whose Stories you no longer want at the top of your feed. Then, you can select an option to mute that user. The user's Stories will no longer autoplay and will automatically go to the back of the list. With this method, the muted person's regular Instagram content will still appear in the main feed unless you completely unfollow them.
Instagram is also testing a feature that will let people know when they have seen all the posts from their network posted during the previous 48 hours. The notification, which was first reported by TechCrunch, says "You're All Caught Up – You've seen all new posts from the past 48 hours" and appears in the middle of the feed. We didn't see this feature yet, but Instagram confirmed it's under testing.
That said, it's nearly impossible to view all the posts in that time frame because of the amount and rate content is posted. (Trust us, we tried.)
