The “quiet mode” feature, which Instagram launched on Thursday, aims to assist users focus and establishing limits with followers and friends.
The profile’s activity status changes to “In quiet mode” when the choice is selected, pausing all alerts. During this time, if a direct message is sent, Instagram will instantly reply to the sender to let them know that “quiet mode” is active.
Although all users can utilize the feature, Instagram seems to be concentrating on teenagers. Instagram encourages kids to enable the feature after they spend a particular “amount of time on Instagram late at night” and promotes it as a tool to aid in studying.
The upgrade is only one of several updates that are being released recently, along with new tools for managing suggestions and enhanced parental control options. The debuts coincide with Instagram’s efforts to lessen the likelihood that authorities and lawmakers will target the app because of possible risks associated with social media, especially for teenage users.
Up to this point, Instagram has added a number of teen safety features, such as those to safeguard teens’ privacy and lessen unwanted adult contact, restrict ad targeting, bar teens from accessing mature content, and other features to assist parents in keeping an eye on and managing their teens’ use of Instagram through parental controls.
The tool will be made available to users in the US, UK, Canada, Ireland New Zealand, and Australia, with intentions to expand to additional nations in the future.
After years of attention over how much time individuals – and especially teens – engage on different social media sites and the risks it might bring to their mental health, the tool is the most recent example of Instagram giving users more methods to regulate their usage.
The company stated in a blog post, “These updates are part of our ongoing work to ensure people have experiences that work for them, and that they have more control over the time they spend online and the types of content they see.”
Instagram users can opt to take a break with Quiet Mode to work, rest, or indulge in other activities. The app will provide a rundown of what users missed when they were in Quiet Mode to help them catch up.
The introduction of Quiet Mode coincides with Instagram coming under increasing fire for its impact on young people’s mental health, particularly teenage girls. Internal data published by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen in 2021 showed that the company had discovered that kids who were “addicted” to the app and that 1 in 3 girls who use Instagram have worsened body image concerns.
As part of its effort to placate parents, Meta is introducing a number of additional methods for managing Instagram recommendations. Instagram is developing its “not interested button,” which allows users to mark particular categories of content that users don’t want to see.
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