Instagram is working on a new feature that will give you the power to choose who can send you messages, based on what app researcher Jane Manchun Wong has discovered. Further, one of the options you can choose from is the ability to receive messages only from people you follow. Spam bots are all over the place on Instagram, leaving unsavory comments on posts and even sliding into users’ DMs. This feature could help keep them — and those using the platform to hit on and harass people — out of your inbox, even if your account is set to public.
Instagram is working on “Allow Messages From People I Follow”
This could shield users from unwanted messages without making privatizing the account pic.twitter.com/X3f8DgMudo
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) August 31, 2019
Instagram’s current set-up still allows randos to send you a DM, though it shows up as a request you can ignore. This feature can presumably prevent them from messaging you at all. The setting will apparently appear under a new Messaging option in your Privacy settings. Based on Wong’s screenshot, it will even give you a way to choose who can add you to group chats.
This is just something the Facebook-owned social network is working on, though, and experimental features don’t always get released. As Wong notes, if you have access to Instagram’s Creator Account option, you can enable it to get access to an inbox with two tabs that lets you prioritize messages. Instagram gave influencers first access to Creator Account, but the feature’s support page says it’s “slowly rolling out as an option for all users…”
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