Addicted to Instagram? Meet new feature to control time in the app

You’ve probably already found yourself swiping your finger on your cell phone screen in an almost involuntary way or know someone who spends a lot of time on the feed of social networks🇧🇷 With an eye on this automatic behavior, the Instagram launched a new feature to make the user experience less harmful and addictive.

The “take a break”, in free translation into Portuguese, “take a break”, is available in the app from this Tuesday (7), in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. For us, Brazilians, the novelty arrives in the month of January.

Since November, some users have already had an experience with the “take a break” due to a test phase. In 2018, Instagram also started to provide a graph with the time of use of the app and set up alerts.

But at that moment the platform is attentive to the hours without interruption that the user dispenses. That is, before it was possible to receive an alert about the time you spent per day in the application. Now, if you’ve been browsing non-stop for 30 minutes, Instagram may send you a warning to put your foot on the brake and take a break, just like it already happens on TikTok.

Adam Mosseri, chief executive of Instagram, explained in the introduction of the feature that the company is committed to encouraging users to take “greater control of their experiences. Only you know what works best for you, and we want to provide tools for people to see what works best for them.”

Learn how to use Instagram’s conscious use features

As we explained, “take a break” is not yet available in Brazil, but it is worth getting used to debuting the feature in January. See the step by step:

• Tap your Instagram profile icon (lower right corner with the app open);
• Access the menu (three stripe icons at the top) and choose Your Activity;
• In Time, choose the option “Set reminders to pause” Then the options will appear: 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes and Off. Just choose the time you want and give Ok at the end.

Already the daily use reminder is available. Check out how easy it is to install the feature now in your app.

• Tap your Instagram profile icon (lower right corner with the app open);
• Access the menu (three stripe icons at the top) and choose Your Activity;
• In Time, the app will show your average daily usage of Instagram. To configure notifications, tap on the option Create Daily Reminder; Just adjust a period and Instagram will warn you when it exceeds what has been established.