Instagram a photo sharing platform has been introducing several new features off-late. Be it filters in the ‘story’ section, adding new stickers, or following hashtags as per your interest the application is on constant update spree. The latest update shows when you were last active on the application. In the direct messaging section of the application, you can see when the person you were conversing with was last active. The application is apparently testing some of the new features and this one has already rolled out. So if you have an updated version, your presence online is also seen to someone you might have been conversing with. But do not worry, there is an option to deactivate it.

The new feature which shows ‘Active’ is similar to the last seen on WhatsApp. And not many users are happy about this new feature. It is much like the blue ticks added to WhatsApp which was also not preferred by many. Instagram’s direct message section shows options like ‘Active now’ or ‘Active minutes/hours ago.’ You can, however, change the visibility by going to Settings- Show Activity Status- turn off the toggle. Similar to WhatsApp, when you switch off this option, you to cannot see when your friends were last active.

In the last update, the application introduced a secret commenting feature. According to a report, they are already working on the next update which will enhance the fonts and experiment in the ‘Type’ section. Instagram is primarily a photo-based platform but the text feature will enable text-only, written Stories on the mobile app. Users will be able to change the font and backgrounds. Well, this sounds good enough but we do not know yet how they will look or work. Another report from WABetaInfo suggests a more important and convincing feature of sending the user a notification if someone takes a screenshot of their stories. With regards to security, this will be a much-needed feature. So, Instagram is actually working on a lot of updates. Let us look forward to more secure and user-friendly experience.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 19, 2018 06:28 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).