Back in June 2017, Instagram revealed that it started testing a feature that was called “favorites.”
This was an attempt to reinvent the friends list and encourage people to share more by allowing them to post to a more limited group of their followers.
In response to the rise of Finstagrams which are private accounts followed only by a person’s closest friends, the company thought that it’s time to give users more tools for private sharing with a suite of features that are touching almost every part of the application.
Close Friends feature
Eighteen months have passed since all of this and Instagram’s twist on private sharing has finally arrived, and it looks much different than it used to back in 2017.
Now the feature is called “Close Friends” and it will only be limited to Stories. While this has been scaled back, the function could still reshape the social dynamics on Instagram, believes The Verge.
How does the new feature work?
In order to use this new feature, you have to open up the Stories camera and take a picture or film a video.
After you finish, you will notice that there’s a new green circle with a white star in it. If you tap on it, you will be brought to the close friends list where you can add the people to your inner circle.
Of course, Instagram will help you by suggesting friends based on the people with whom you are interacting the most. You can also use a search box to finish your list as well.
During the testing process, people have been adding about 12 close friends, according to Robby Stein, product lead at Instagram.
When your list is eventually finished, you will be able to share to your close pals by tapping the green circle that we mentioned earlier whenever you capture a photo or videoon Stories.
After you do this, your close pals will be able to see a green ring around your story in the tray at the top of the feed. This is a sign that a close friend has shared something more privately with you.
After finishing Theatrical Journalism at the Faculty of Theatre and Television in Cluj-Napoca, Rada reviewed movies, books, theatre pieces and she also wrote articles from the IT niche as a content editor for software producers. At the moment, she is working with various online advertising firms.
