Instagram‘s Direct messaging service has received a new feature that allows users to know when their friends are online and available to chat on the platform. The active status on Instagram is indicated by a green dot attached to the profile photo of a user. It should be pointed out that this feature has long been available in the Messenger app, another service owned by Facebook, so Instagram is quite late to adopting the same feature.
The green dot is visible anywhere in the Instagram app for friends who are online. For instance, it may appear on the Direct inbox next to the profile picture of an online user or in the list of contacts when a user is trying to send a photo to friends via the Direct messaging tool. It is important to remember that users will only be able to see the active status of their friends and of the people with whom they exchanged messages via Direct. The green dot indicator is a helpful tool because when users have an important thing to send to their contacts in private, they can easily see the online status of their friends. Keep in mind that there is an option to disable the feature so that users can conceal their online status from public view or avoid seeing when their friends have gone online. When friends have gone offline, users will also see when they were last active.
In April last year, Instagram’s Direct inbox also received an update that lets users see their texts and reshares appear in the same conversations, displayed as an ongoing thread so that it is easier to keep the conversation going and add photos and disappearing videos more easily. Last September, Instagram also introduced a feature to its photo sharing service that allows users to share Stories with friends and family in Direct messages. That feature displays the Direct icon in the bottom right corner so that users will be able to tap it easily once they find an interesting story to share with someone privately. Then late last year, the photo sharing service introduced the ability for users to send live video feeds through Direct.