Instagram has updated a time-management feature so that users can browse the platform much longer before receiving alerts.
The Meta-owned photo-sharing app made the change to a feature that lets users select their “daily time limit” that monitors how much time they spend in Instagram. Because of the change, first noted by TechCrunch, users no longer have the option to choose time increments lower than 30 minutes, such as 15 or 10 minutes.
The consequence is that it will be harder to users who are trying to limit their time on the app to do so.
Meta disclosed in its recent earnings that the core Facebook service experienced its first drop in users in the company’s history. It appears that Meta doesn’t want the same trend to bleed into Instagram.
Instagram pushed back on TechCrunch report, saying via Twitter that the company offers other time-management features that lets users set time limits on their app usage.
In a statement to Fortune, an Instagram spokesperson said that the company has two other time-management features.
“Our existing ‘daily limit’ shows you a notification when you’ve hit your daily limit, but our newest feature ‘Take A Break’ shows you full-screen reminders to leave the app, and includes 10 minute intervals,” the spokesperson said. “We changed the ‘daily limit’ options to avoid sending people multiple notifications at the same time.”
Still, it’s likely that users could be unaware that “Take A Break” feature, which was released in December, is where they should go in case they want to set lower-time limits governing how long they use Instagram. As the TechCrunch article noted, it doesn’t appear that Instagram referred users of its “daily time limit” feature to access the “Take A Break” feature if they wanted to select short time increments as opposed to only those at or above 30 minutes.
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