Instagram launches Quiet Mode; now turn the app silent when needed

Instagram has launched the ‘Quiet Mode’ to help people focus and to encourage them to set boundaries with friends and followers. Once the Instagram user enables the mode, they will not receive any notifications, their profile’s activity status will change to ‘In quiet mode’ and the app will automatically send an auto-reply when someone will DM the user.

The Quiet Mode can be customised too. "You can easily customize your Quiet mode hours to fit your schedule and once the feature is turned off, we’ll show you a quick summary of notifications so you can catch up on what you missed. Anyone can use ‘Quiet mode’, but we’ll prompt teens to do so when they spend a specific amount of time on Instagram late at night," the social media platform said in a blog post.

Quiet mode is available to everyone in the US, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand starting January 19. While it will be made available to other countries soon. Other than the Quiet Mode, Instagram has also come up with other features. Check them out here.

New ways to manage your recommendations

In order to give people more control over the content they see on Instagram, the app has introduced new features that allow people to tell what content they don’t want recommended to them.

1. You can now choose to hide multiple pieces of content in Explore that you are not interested in at one time. Additionally, when you select 'Not interested' on a post seen in Explore, the app will avoid showing you this kind of content going forward in other places where it can make recommendations, like Reels, Search and more.

2. While you can already hide comments and DMs containing specific words, Instagram is now expanding this feature to apply to recommended posts you might see across the app. Add a word or list of words, emojis or hashtags that you want to avoid – like “fitness” or “recipes” – and Instagram will work to no longer recommend content with those words in the caption or the hashtag. You can access this in the Hidden Words section of Privacy settings.

3. Recently, Instagram added the ability for parents to see their teen’s Instagram settings, including privacy and account settings. If their teen updates a setting, parents will receive a notification so they can talk to their teen about the change. Parents can now also view accounts their teen has blocked.