Instagram has announced a handful of improvements that will help users not be disturbed while browsing their feeds, along with better control over Explore content and a way for parents to view their teen’s Instagram account.
Detailed in a blog post (Opens in a new tab)These features are slowly rolling out to users on iOS and Android starting today (January 19), with Quiet Mode at the helm of these improvements. Similar to Do Not Disturb on iOS and Android, it will let your followers know that you don’t want to be disturbed for a certain amount of time.
It’s a useful feature for those who primarily use Instagram on top of other social platforms, along with the ability to group a collection of photos and videos in the Explore tab that you’re not interested in — something I’ve found it does more.
However, there is one aspect of Instagram that I would like to see some improvement in.
Let’s see some spam fixing effort now
Lately, when I post a story on my Instagram account, I’ll get a barrage of notifications from spam accounts that have no followers, with website links to adult content. The above is just a small example of this, which is confusing.
While it’s nice to see improved parental controls, every user on the platform will be as vulnerable to spam as you are regardless, so that should be a high priority for Meta.
The same also applies when I post pictures to my dog’s Instagram account (Opens in a new tab). Suddenly, I’d get notifications to share the post on another account with a couple of followers, or receive message requests to do “collaborations” on merch, which would lead to links and blank web pages on completely different topics.
Spam seems to be getting worse lately, so let’s see a renewed effort to clamp down on this. Every user runs the risk of talking to a spam account that might steal their account, and with more focus on parental controls, the timing seems perfect to look into the problem and find a solution.