Instagram Gains Status Dots to Let You Know When Friends Are Online - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Instagram Gains Status Dots to Let You Know When Friends Are Online

by

Instagram today announced the launch of a new feature that's designed to let you know when your friends are active on the social network. When a friend is online, their profile picture will be accented with a green dot in various places within the app.

You'll see the green dot in the Direct inbox and in your friends list when you share a post from the feed. Dots will be displayed for friends who follow you or people you have previously spoken to in Direct.

instagramstatusdots
If desired, you can hide your own status and turn off the ability to see when your friends are active in the settings section of the Instagram app.

Instagram says this new update is meant to make it easier to connect with friends over direct messages for more realtime conversations. The dots are rolling out to Instagram users today.

Instagram can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Top Rated Comments

riverfreak Avatar
101 months ago

...
Instagram says this new update is meant to make it easier to connect with friends over direct messages for more realtime conversations. The dots are rolling out to Instagram users today.
... (https://www.macrumors.com/2018/07/19/instagram-online-status-indicator/)
Uh, right. No, it’s meant to increase user engagement and the opportunity for more ad placements by feeding a generalized sense of anxiety and FOMO.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
101 months ago
How to turn off this?
It literally tells you in the article.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
101 months ago
imagine paying a cto, president of engineering, vp of engineering, a bunch of product managers and engineers to build and deliver..... a colored status indicator.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
haruhiko Avatar
101 months ago
How to turn off this?

Edit: just found out that I have already turned off the 'feature', thanks.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
101 months ago
I’ve had this all year. I turned it off though, they were annoying.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

Instagram Feature 2

Instagram Now Lets You Edit Comments for Up to 15 Minutes

Thursday April 9, 2026 1:31 pm PDT by
Instagram today implemented a small but useful change, allowing Instagram users to edit their comments for up to 15 minutes after writing the initial comment. The Meta-owned social media site has long supported editing an Instagram post, but comments have never been able to be updated to correct typos. Editing a comment can be done by tapping on the new "Edit" option that is displayed after...
Four iPhone 18 Pro Colors Mock Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching in September With These 10 New Features

Monday April 20, 2026 7:13 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not launching until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component will be moved under the...
Tim Cook Rainbow

Apple CEO Tim Cook Stepping Down, John Ternus Taking Over

Monday April 20, 2026 1:33 pm PDT by
Apple CEO Tim Cook is stepping down as Apple's chief executive officer, and hardware engineering chief John Ternus is set to take over, Apple announced today. Cook will continue on as Apple CEO through the summer, with Ternus set to join Apple's Board of Directors and take over as CEO on September 1, 2026. Cook is going to transition to executive chairman, and he will "assist with certain...