Instagram has been here for a while and over the years we’ve seen it change. A lot of features were added and some of them even removed to make the app better. In 2020, however, it looks like we’ll be seeing 2 new features that the makers of the app have decided to bring in. Them being The Ability to Control who Mentions You and The Ability to Share DM Messages to Stories.
Both these features were discovered by Jane Manchun Wong, who happens to be a tech analyst and a reverse software engineer. While looking at the app code, Wong found, what seemed to be, the basis of these two new features. She shared screenshots of both these features as they would be available in the future version of the app.
Instagram is working on letting users choose who can mention them
This can protect users from harassments pic.twitter.com/W6hivc5g8P
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) January 11, 2020
First, let’s talk about how Instagram will let you control who can mention you. You may have noticed, or possibly even done it yourself, that if someone sees a relatable post on the app, they can mention you by commenting “@” followed by your username. It seems to be a useful and convenient feature until you realize that it has a flaw.
As of now, there’s no way for you to control who can mention you in the comments of any random post. That person can be your follower or a complete stranger. This has often led most users to spam tags and even potential bullying/harassment. However, the new feature will fix that issue.
In the privacy settings of your app, you will soon see a new option called Mentions and from there you can either allow everyone to mention you or just the people you follow. If you want to take extreme measures, you do have the option to completely disallow everyone from mentioning you.
It is a great move by Instagram and a possible step towards making the app a safer space. However, I do believe that there should be an option that allows you to make a customized list of people who specifically cannot mention you. This will make this feature even more flexible for you to use. Perhaps Instagram will consider adding that.
Instagram is working on the ability to share Direct messages to Story after it's approved pic.twitter.com/Sn0ccDifnD
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) January 11, 2020
The second feature is the ability to share a direct message sent by someone to you as your story. Currently, we have the ability to share someone’s posts or stories as our own story. The purpose behind it is to show what the other person has posted to your own followers while the credits to the original account are given.
This is just an extension of that as it will allow you to share someone’s messages as well. Now, I know you’re probably thinking this will be a breach of privacy as most direct messages are personal. Well, fear not as Instagram as probably thought this through and have placed a check to avoid privacy issues.
To share a message, you would need to long-press the message until some options pop up. Among them, you’ll now find a new option called Share to Story. When you press that the story won’t upload yet. The person, whose message you’re trying to share, will be notified that you want to share his message to your story and then they’ll be able to either approve or reject this request.
Basically you won’t be able to do this without the other person’s permission, which is brilliant forward-thinking by Instagram. By implementing just this simple check, Instagram will avoid many possible issues that involve people leaking private messages to all their followers.