It seems like social media platforms are adding new annoying features every bloody week, but Instagram‘s latest change is one you probably wanna turn off, particularly if you’re partial to sending or receiving DMs.
The setting is called Show Activity Status, which, as the name suggests, shows people the last time you were active on the app. When you tap into the messaging section of Instagram (the little paper plane icon at the top right of the home screen), the last time someone was active will appear next to their name. This means your own status will appear on their devices.
It’s a little annoying and pretty unnecessary, which is why you should just turn that shit off. All you need to do is head to your profile tab (the last button on the right along the bar at the bottom of the app) and select the Settings icon (next to Edit Profile button in iOS and at the top right of the app on Android).
In Settings, scroll down until you see the Show Activity Status option and switch it to off. Once it’s disabled, no one will be able to see when you last used the app and you won’t be able to see when others did. A fair trade, no?
The setting doesn’t appear to sync between different devices, so if you use Instagram on more than just your phone, make sure you switch the setting off on those other devices, as well.
There you have it, folks, privacy restored once again.
