When you¡¯re browsing Instagram, it¡¯s pretty easy to get sucked in for hours on end, with no clue of where the time went. Soon, the app may actually have a way for you to stop that, or at least guilt-trip yourself into cutting back.
Instagram is reportedly getting a new ¡°Usage Insights¡± tool that will let users see how much time they spend in the app. The discovery was made by app researchers Jane Manchun Wong, who found mentions of the feature hidden in Instagram¡¯s code.
Eventually, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom confirmed the news in a series of tweets, elaborating that the company is ¡°building tools that will help the IG community know more about the time they spend on Instagram ¡ª any time should be positive and intentional.¡±
So far, there¡¯s no mention of what the tool will actually entail. It might just have overall statistics of time spent in the app, measured and compared over a few days or weeks. Then again, we might be lucky enough to get a more minute breakdown, like how much time you spend composing a post and how long you were just browsing.
Either way, this makes Instagram, the second major company to give thought to how users spend time in the app, rather than just keeping them hooked. Google recently announced similar tools of its own in Android P, which warn you when you¡¯ve spent to much time on YouTube, and give you visual cues to let know you¡¯re on your phone way past the time you said you wanted to get to bed.
Who knows, maybe this¡¯ll help to stop your friends from burying their noses in their phones during an outing.