Instagram is launching a few new features that are aimed at aiding user mental health, including “Quiet mode” which will notify contacts when you’re offline, and content controls to improve recommendations.
As per Instagram: “Teens have told us that they sometimes want to take time for themselves and might be looking for more ways to focus at night, while studying, and during school. You can easily customize your ‘Quiet mode’ hours to fit your schedule and once the feature is turned off, we’ll show you a quick summary of notifications so you can catch up on what you missed.”
Interestingly, there is also an indicator of Instagram acknowledging and making moves to prevent its more toxic cultures on the site.
As per the statement, Instagram said: “Add a word or list of words, emojis or hashtags that you want to avoid – like ’fitness’ or ‘recipes’ – and we’ll work to no longer recommend content with those words in the caption or the hashtag. You can also access this in the Hidden Words section of Privacy settings.”
Additionally, there will be new setting updates for parents, called the Family Centre, which will allow parents and guardians better to monitor their children’s privacy and account settings. If a teen updates these settings, the parent will then get a notification to let them know.
