Instagram’s Do Not Disturb and “Caught Up” deter overgramming

Instagram is turning the Time Well Spent philosophy into features to help users avoid endless scrolling and distraction by notifications. Today, Instagram is rolling out its “You’re All Caught – You’ve seen all new posts from the past 2 days” warning in the feed which TechCrunch broke the news about in May. Past that notice will only be posts that iOS and Android users have already seen or that were posted more than 48 hours ago. This will help Instagram’s 1 billion monthly users stop fiendishly scrolling in search of new posts scattered by the algorithm. While sorting the feed has made it much better at displaying the most interesting posts, it can also make people worry they’ve missed something. This warning should give them peace of mind.

Meanwhile, TechCrunch has learned that both Facebook and Instagram are prototyping Do Not Disturb features that let  users shut off notifications from the apps for 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 8 hours, 1 day, or until they’re turned back on manually.  WhatsApp Beta and Matt Navarra first spotted the Instagram and Facebook Do Not Disturb features.

Both Facebook and Instagram declined to comment on building new Do Not Disturb features. We referenced Instagram Do Not Disturb our scoop about Instagram building a Usage Insights dashboard detailing how much time you spent on the app.

When we first reported on Usage Insights, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom has tweeted a link to the article, confirming that Instagram was getting behind the Time Well Spent movement. “It’s true . . . We’re building tools that will help the IG community know more about the time they spend on Instagram – any time should be positive and intentional . . . Understanding how time online impacts people is important, and it’s the responsibility of all companies to be honest about this. We want to be part of the solution. I take that responsibility seriously.”

Now we’re seeing this perspective manifest itself in Instagram’s product.