Yesterday, July 19, Instagram brought a new feature enabling users to understand when their friends are online and receive direct messages in real-time. Basically, the platform replicated its owner Facebook’s long-loved feature that’s now in Messenger as well as other areas of the Facebook app.
You can’t miss out on the fact that this is one of the most fundamental features of social media platforms, where you want to know who is online during your time there. Released 7 years ago, this makes it the first instance that Instagram brought general convenience on its own platform.
From now onwards, you will get to see the Instagram green dots next to the profile picture of your friends in any and every area within the app. This includes the Direct inbox and your friend list while posting or sharing anything on your feed.
This is applicable only for the contacts who have followed you and the ones with whom you have talked in Direct. Your own status can be hidden in the Activity Status of Settings menu in the app when you don’t wish others to see that you are online.
Of course, turning off your Activity Status means that you won’t be able to see others’ activities, just like on WhatsApp. No sneaking, people!
The update also lets you see your friends’ most recent activity, like ‘Active 25m ago’, ‘Seen’ or ‘Typing…’. This radically opens up possibilities to have real-time conversations with friends, which is perfectly parallel to the encouragement that the platform is pushing for users to spend more time on itself.
Just don’t forget your work or study amid the flow of newness! Happy Instagramming!
