Instagram is adding the dreaded green dot to the chat portion of its app, to show users which of their contacts are currently active.
The photo and video-sharing platform is following in the footsteps of parent company Facebook by placing the dot next to the names in the user’s DM stream. The Activity Status feature is designed for those insatiable ‘grammers who demand instant gratification for whatever they’re choosing to share at any given moment. Or, as the company puts it, to enable more real-time interaction.
Before you’re go writing a strongly-worded email to Kevin Systrom, you should note that the feature can be easily nixed within the settings.
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In a blog post on Thursday the company explained: “DMing friends and connecting over the content you love is more fun when you know your friends are there to see it. This update gives you the ability to have more of those realtime conversations while giving you the control to hide your status altogether.”
In order to turn off the feature you can head to the apps’s settings page and glide down to the “Show Activity Status option” and shut that bad boy down. Naturally, it’s turned on by default. Turning off the feature also prevents you seeing when friends are online too.
This week it emerged Instagram is also testing a way of removing followers without them knowing about it. Until now, the only way to get rid of those creepy followers you’d rather not access your feed would be to block, or set an account to private.
If Instagram builds this feature into the main app, the follower will simply think you’ve stopped posting, thus removing any awkwardness. Hooray!
Will you be leaving the Instagram Activity Status tool switched on? Or will it go the first time you receive a barrage of posts from that mate who shares everything? Let us know @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.