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Instagram Adds New Feature Showing When You Were Last Active

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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-800x858.jpg

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.

Article Link: Instagram Adds New Feature Showing When You Were Last Active
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/01/18/instagram-activity-status-feature/
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.
 
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yanki01 said:
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.
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This and „suggested posts“ are the WORST. I am like scrolling through my feed and suddenly I am like „huh? Who is this? When did I follow this person? OH NVM“
 
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They can do this but they still can't enable sound for notifications when someone follows you, comments, or likes your post? I get sound notifications for direct messages but I never get a sound or a vibration for the other notifications IG sends out.
 
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MacRumors said:
instagramactivitystatus-800x858.jpg
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How about returning to an intuitive and easy to understand interface? Enough with apps looking like white-out unfinished rough drafts.

Looking quickly, where does the top-most post end, the lower post start, the main toolbar start, and the header end?

43AD25E0-30B8-41B6-9AD9-A21FD2BE07BC.png

Instagram has progressively gotten worse and worse. Fix the big things first before piddly refinements.
 
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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.
 
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Smartass said:
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?
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That's already been announced, it's called Direct and is being tested in Turkey, Uruguay, Chile, Portugal, Italy and Israel. It's expected to roll out broadly this year, but there is no definitive timeline yet.
 
Tozovac said:
How about returning to an intuitive and easy to understand interface? Enough with apps looking like white-out unfinished rough drafts.

Looking quickly, where does the top-most post end, the lower post start, the main toolbar start, and the header end?

View attachment 747537

Instagram has progressively gotten worse and worse. Fix the big things first before piddly refinements.
Click to expand...
Okay, I even more feel like you're only here to criticize every single design decision companies make. There's literally nothing wrong with the way Instagram is designed, as I can easily differentiate which design element is which.
 
KamranMackey said:
Okay, I even more feel like you're only here to criticize every single design decision companies make. There's literally nothing wrong with the way Instagram is designed, as I can easily differentiate which design element is which.
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Not every. Just ones deserving in my opinion, which could easily be fixed by offering actual options like most other companies do.

Potayto, Potahto. You win as far as tolerance/like for Apple’s directions. Happy for you.
 
Tozovac said:
Not every. Just ones deserving in my opinion, which could easily be fixed by offering actual options like most other companies do.

Potayto, Potahto. You win as far as tolerance/like for Apple’s directions. Happy for you.
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Hey, I never said I approve of every single decision Apple makes. I definitely don't. I don't like a lot of the decisions they make, especially with regards to the direction they're taking the MacBook line, and the whole battery fiasco isn't something I 100% approve of either. But for a lot of things, Apple handles them fine.

EDIT: That's the only thing I'm going to say in this thread as I don't want to deviate the thread from the topic at hand.
 
KamranMackey said:
Hey, I never said I approve of every single decision Apple makes. I definitely don't. I don't like a lot of the decisions they make, especially with regards to the direction they're taking the MacBook line, and the whole battery fiasco isn't something I 100% approve of either. But for a lot of things, Apple handles them fine.
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That’s cool! Not saying you’re wrong. :)
 
"That's the whole app," according to The Verge, which also reported on a new way to easily jump between Direct and Instagram.
Still, there are some nice touches. Designers built what might be the niftiest app transition I’ve ever seen: If you start swiping to the right of the Direct inbox, an Instagram logo pops begins to peak out from the side of the app. Swipe all the way to the right and Direct will open Instagram. Similarly, you can swipe right in Instagram to reveal the Direct logo — a modified version of the paper-plane logo Instagram has long used for messages — and completing your swipe will take you back to Direct.”

What am I missing? If transitions are so easy, as if it’s one app, then why separate into two apps? Seriously, what am I missing? I’m used to inventions for the sake of inventions and change for the sake of change nowadays, but they do such a good job of making it sound like it’s one integrated system, so why separate.
 
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gadgetguy03 said:
They can do this but they still can't enable sound for notifications when someone follows you, comments, or likes your post? I get sound notifications for direct messages but I never get a sound or a vibration for the other notifications IG sends out.
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It seems that it's not so much that they can't, it's more that they don't want to. Similar to how they don't use badges for various things, if I recall correctly, and so forth.
 
Looks like the whole Instagram ecosystem might be the next one I opt out of. Oh well.
 
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