Instagram has announced a new feature called Quiet Mode for users to have a better control over the boundaries set for friends and followers. The objective is to reduce user anxiety about taking time off from the app in the form of silencing incoming notifications,auto-replying to DMs, and setting your status to ‘In QuietMode’ to inform friends that you’re not active on the app at present. The feature is primarily targeted towards teen users (but can be used by all), especially those who keep using the applate at night.
Once enabled, all notifications will be paused and the profile’s activity status will change to ‘In quiet mode’and in case someone sends a direct message during this time, Instagram will automatically send an auto-reply notifying the sender that “quiet mode” is activated.
The feature (restricted to theUS, the UK, Ireland, Canada,Australia and New Zealand at the moment and Meta hopes to bring it to more countries soon) also makes the app less susceptible to actions from regulators who have been concerned with social media potential harms. Instagram has been adding several teen safety features, including those to protect teens’ privacy and reduce unwanted adult contact,limit ad targeting and restrict teens access to mature content.
There is also the option of better managing what is being shown in the Explore tab. Users can now choose to hide multiple pieces of content in Explore that you aren’t interested in atone time. Additionally, when you select ‘not interested’ on a post seen in Explore, Instagram will try to avoid showing you this kind of content going forward in other places where it makes recommendations, like Reels,Search and more. A final tweak to users’ recommendations will be driven by blocked words.
While Quiet Mode is only launching in select markets, the other updates are rolling out globally to iOS and Android.