Instagram quietly extends minimum daily time limit

Instagram recently introduced a bunch of new features under “Your Activity.” One of them tracks your time on the app and enables you to set a reminder when you reach your daily time limit.

However, Instagram has quietly changed the minimum time limit you can set. Surprise, surprise – it looks like the app isn’t really eager for you to take a break after all. Or at least not so soon.

When you open the “Your Activity” tab, you’ll see the “Time Spent” option on top. When you tap on it, you can see how much time you spend on Instagram and choose to set a reminder to take breaks. And when you do, there will be a few options ranging from 3 hours down to 30 minutes; or you can choose to switch it off. If you set a time limit, you’ll get a popup telling you that it’s time to take a break. Here’s what it looks like for me:

So what’s the issue (other than placing longer time periods first)? Well, there used to be an option for you to choose a 10-minute time limit. A user sent a screenshot to TechCrunch showing that the daily time limit has changed. They said that they got a popup at the top of their feed urging them to change the time limit. app update. There was reportedly an additional popup within “Your Activity” stating that the 10-minute value was “no longer supported.”

After the TechCrunch article, Instagram confirmed changes on Twitter. The company claims that it was changed “to avoid sending people multiple notifications at the same time.”

Instagram also notes that there are two time-management features. The “daily limit” is the one you choose yourself and it shows you a notification when you’ve hit your daily limit. But it’s not the same as Instagram’s “Take A Break” feature which shows you full-screen reminders to leave the app and includes 10-minute intervals.

@TechCrunch @riptari This article fails to mention that we have two time management features. Our existing ‘daily limit’ shows you a notification when you’ve hit your daily limit, but our newest feature ‘Take A Break’ shows you full-screen reminders to leave the app, and includes 10 minute intervals https://t.co/cZmGTlXvuB

Still, even though “Take A Break” and “Time Limit” are not quite the same, there used to be an option for you to set your own time limit to 10 minutes. Now it starts at 30, and it’s quite a difference. So, you can either limit Instagram to half an hour in the app… Or just take control over yourself, stop scrolling mindlessly and do something more fun instead.

[via The Verge]