Instagram is reportedly getting rid of the feature that let you see what everyone else was liking

Advertisement
Instagram is reportedly getting rid of the feature that let you see what everyone else was liking

Instagram

Reuters

Advertisement
  • Instagram is discontinuing its Following Activity tab, a feature that let people easily see which posts their friends and coworkers were liking on the platform, according to a report from BuzzFeed News.
  • The feature wasn't used frequently by most people, Vishal Shah, Instagram's head of product, told Buzzfeed News.
  • An Instagram update that discontinues the feature will reportedly roll out later this week.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Starting this week, it will be harder to stalk people's activity on Instagram.

Instagram is discontinuing a feature called Following Activity that showed people's likes, comments, and follows in a separate tab, according to a report from BuzzFeed News' Katie Notopoulos.

Complimentary Tech Event
Transform talent with learning that works
Capability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More

The Following Activity tab on Instagram showed users which posts their friends were liking, and could previously be accessed by clicking on the heart icon on the app's bottom menu bar. The tab will vanish from the app with an update later this week, Vishal Shah, Instagram's head of product, told Buzzfeed News.

Instagram following activity tab

Instagram

An example what users can currently see in the Following Activity tab on Instagram.

Advertisement

Shah said that the tab was rarely clicked on by the average Instagram user, adding that the platform is removing the feature in order to present a more simplistic interface. When people did find out about the Following Activity tab, Shah said, they were surprised and unnerved.

"People didn't always know that their activity is surfacing," Shah told Buzzfeed News. "So you have a case where it's not serving the use case you built it for, but it's also causing people to be surprised when their activity is showing up."

Instagram did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment on the change.

Read more: Instagram has created an app for instant messaging with people on your Close Friends list in an attempt to best Snapchat

The app has seemingly already begun removing the feature for test groups of users, which some Twitter and Reddit users noted as early as September.

Advertisement

Meanwhile, Instagram is rolling out new features in other realms. Its separate messaging app, Threads, which mimics Snapchat's format of quick image-based messaging, launched last week.

Exclusive FREE Report: The Stories Slide Deck by Business Insider Intelligence

{{}}