Instagram was today updated with a new feature that displays when you were last active, with the new activity indicator accessible via the direct messages section of the app.

In Direct, under a person's name, you'll now see when they last opened up the Instagram app with a message like "Active Now" or "Active 2h ago." This is similar to how other apps like Facebook Messenger work, letting people you've previously interacted with know when you're online.

instagramactivitystatus
The activity indicator is enabled by default and appears to be limited to people you've chatted with via direct messages. According to The Verge, your online status is visible to people you follow or have previously DM'd, with the info not accessible to general followers.

If you would prefer not to have your online status available on Instagram, you can turn it off in the Settings app under a new option called "Show Activity Status." If you disable the feature, no one will be able to see when you're online, but you also won't be able to see the online status of your friends.

The activity indicator appears to be a feature that's been quietly rolled out to all iOS and Android users.

In related news, Instagram is currently testing another new feature called "Type," which is designed to allow users to share text-only posts via Instagram Stories. The text-only feature appears to be similar in design to the Facebook feature that lets you accentuate text-only posts with large fonts and colorful backgrounds, as seen in this video shared by The Next Web.


Type is not available to all users at this time, but those who have access can use it when sharing a story. The Type button is available next to other Instagram Stories camera options like Boomerang and Rewind, with several fonts and backgrounds available.

Top Rated Comments

mollyc Avatar
81 months ago
I could tell when my IG friends were last active if they showed the feed chronologically.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Smartass Avatar
81 months ago
How long for these blithering idiots to figure it out and announce "We are going back to instagram's roots!" like they did with FB just couple of days ago? whats next? Seperate IG messenger app?
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Wahlstrm Avatar
81 months ago
Imagine if you klicked play on Netflix and they started showing you the season episodes in random order, leave out 40% of the episodes and after every 2-4 episodes they would show you an episode from another series just for fun..

This is basically how I feel about my experience using Instagram nowadays.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
yanki01 Avatar
81 months ago
a little annoyed at the updates they're doing so i've been staying off a lot more. once they started with algorithm, it wasn't AS bad. now, it's as bad as facebook. showing me post from 5-6 days ago. also, if someone uploads multiple pictures in one post. it will show the other pictures throughout my feed as opposed to once and just the first photo. it will show the 2nd photo a little ways down in case i missed it. then later on i'll see the 3rd photo in case i missed that one also.

*edit: already turned off that feature.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
its93rc Avatar
81 months ago
whats next? Seperate IG messenger app?
Don't give them ideas.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jav6454 Avatar
81 months ago
Quick question: Why?!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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