Instagram testing new feature that allows users to share feed posts with only ‘close friends’
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The new feature will give users more control over who can see their posts.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: PEXELS
There could be more privacy for Instagram users posting on their feed in future.
The social media platform is reportedly testing a new feature that allows users in countries such as the United Kingdom to restrict who can view posts on their feed. Currently, content posted on the Instagram feed can be seen by all of a user’s followers.
“We’re testing the ability for people in select countries to share feed posts with their Close Friends,” said a Meta spokesman who was quoted in a report by Insider on Thursday.
On Monday, digital media marketing instructor Lia Haberman posted a screenshot of the new feature on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Coming to Instagram. Close Friends feed post. It’s been spotted by someone posting in the UK,” she wrote.
“This would be one way to get people off Stories and out of DMs (direct messages) – create a Close Friends feed experience.”
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has said users are sharing way more Instagram Stories and direct messages than posting on their feed in the past five years or so.
The Close Friends option for Instagram Stories has been available since 2018. Photos and videos posted as Stories disappear after 24 hours.
With this option, users can create a list of users they can selectively share some of their Instagram Stories with, so that such Stories would not be visible to all followers.
The latest Close Friends feature for feed posts is seen as another privacy upgrade, which is aligned with the “broader social sharing shift towards more private group engagement, as opposed to public posting”, wrote social media marketing analyst Andrew Hutchinson.
