As social media continues to impact our mental health and well-being, Instagram has introduced new features they say is intended to help users, particularly teens, set healthier boundaries for their time spent on the platform. The most notable of these new features is the introduction of “Quiet Mode,” which allows users to let their friends and followers know when they are unavailable for a certain period, such as at night-time. When someone enables Quiet Mode, they will see an “in quiet mode” status on their profile, and Quiet Mode will mute notifications and send an auto-reply in response to DMs from friends and followers. Teens will also be prompted to turn on Quiet Mode when they spend a certain amount of time on Instagram at night.
In addition to Quiet Mode, Instagram is also making it easier for users to see more of the content they’re interested in and less of what they want to avoid. Users can now hide multiple pieces of content in “Explore” at once, right from the Explore page, without needing to click into each post individually. Instagram has also updated its Hidden Words tool, which previously protected users from seeing scammy DM requests and comments, so that users can now hide recommended posts with certain words, emojis, or hashtags in the caption.
Finally, Instagram is updating its parental controls to make it even easier for parents to manage their teen’s experience on the platform. Parents will now be able to view their teen’s Instagram account settings, including privacy and content defaults and controls. They will also receive a notification if their teen updates a setting or any accounts their teen has chosen to block, to help parents and teens chat about these changes together.
These new features reflect Instagram’s ongoing commitment to building things that are meaningful for young people and are truly helpful and useful for creators. They complement the platform’s existing tools, such as Take a Break, Sensitive Content Controls, and nudges, that already help users manage their time and the content they see on Instagram.