Instagram has quietly come up with a new feature – Last Active – on iOS and Android that allows your friends to view when you were last active on the platform. Though the Instagram Last Active feature is a good addition, many users might want to turn it off.
Instagram Last Active – how to turn it off?
“We recently rolled out the ability to see when people you follow or message in Direct were last active on Instagram, and they can see when you were last active. Activity status only appears in the Direct inbox and you can control the visibility of your activity status in Settings,” an Instagram spokesperson said in a statement, according to Gadgets360.
Instagram’s Last Active is not altogether a new feature, and is already available similarly in several popular apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
From the direct messages screen, the feature will allow people to see when you last used Instagram. The active status appears on Instagram’s direct messages section just below the name of the followers you’ve been chatting with. It must be noted that not all followers will see when you last visited Instagram, rather the status will be visible to people whom you previously chatted with or follow. The feature shows a time stamp like ‘Active now’, ‘Active today’, ‘Active 1h ago’, ‘Active 24m ago’ etc.
The new feature is turned on by default. If you want others not to view when you last used the platform, you will need to manually turn it off. The active status can be easily turned off from the settings section of the app. All you need to do is scroll down to the ‘show activity status’ option, which is below other options such as vibration customization and language. And, then toggle it off. However, if you choose to disable your activity status, you will not be able to view the same information of others in your list.
Other new Instagram features
Instagram introduced another tracking feature recently. This new feature allows you to see if any account follows you, according to Business Insider. Now, if you are viewing someone else’s profile who follows you but you don’t follow him/her, you will notice the words ‘Follow Back’ instead of the usual ‘Follow.’
“This has been live on Android for a while but we rolled it out to iOS users in December,” an Instagram representative said, according to Business Insider.
Separately, the Facebook-owned platform is also reportedly testing a new ‘Type’ feature. Unlike current Instagram Stories, which is based on the images and video, the new feature facilitates text-only, written Stories on the platform. According to TheNextWeb, the new feature would allow users to select from different backgrounds, fonts, and even apply filters.
Instagram is also reportedly testing a new security feature. This new feature, according to WABetaInfo, will notify users whenever someone takes a screenshot of their stories. Currently, the app notifies of a screenshot if the image or video is sent on Instagram Direct. Now, the notification would cover public stories as well, similar to what Snapchat does.
