The Silicon Review ^Asia

Recently, Instagram CEO Kevin Systorm confirmed that they will be launching their “Usage Insights” feature that will help Instagram users to track the time being spent scrolling through the feed. Systorm posted on Twitter saying, “It’s true . . . We’re building tools that will help the IG community know more about the time they spend on Instagram – any time should be positive and intentional . . . Understanding how time online impacts people is important, and it’s the responsibility of all companies, to be honest about this. We want to be part of the solution. I take that responsibility seriously.”

The first look of the tool is out along with some screenshots that give us a fair idea of how the new feature will be like. It can be observed that they have added a hamburger button that opens up slide-out navigation. They have also designed a new interface for commenting with quick-add emojis and a ‘@’ button for tagging friends. However, it is not entirely certain whether “Usage Insights” will remain the same until the time of its official launch.

This new addition to the app gives the users a way to track their time spent surfing on Instagram. They can also set a time limit for themselves in order to know when to stop browsing. The app will also give you timely reminders once you have exceeded your pre-decided limit. In addition to this, IG has also developed a shortcut that will help you manage your notifications on the gram, making it less interruptive. Instagram has added a new hamburger button that displays a slide-out notification panel on the profile for Usage Insights and this feature is susceptible to change before its official launch.

Instagram has been trying to promote a healthy behavior while browsing the web by implementing these new ‘self-police’ features. Recently, they have even started prompting their users with a message that says “you’re all caught up” once you have scrolled through all the posts in your feed and should ideally stop.