Instagram Is About To Make It Heaps Harder To Stalk Your Ex
Instagram will remove a feature that many of us know and love as the easiest way to stalk your ex, your old friends and your work mates: the following tab.
This is the section where you can see what all the people your following are liking and commenting on. Instagram first launched its following tab in 2011, but the social media platform reckons it has outgrown the feature and according to US reports, it will soon be removed altogether.
A spokesperson told us: “Starting today, we will begin removing the “Following” tab, which was previously accessible by pressing the heart icon and selecting “Following”. This leaves the “You” tab, which will now be known as “Activity”.”
Goodbye old friend…
Instagram’s head of product, Vishal Shah, told BuzzFeed News that they are removing the tab as many people didn’t know it existed and therefore were unaware their activity was being broadcast.
If you ever looked at the “Following” activity tab on Instagram, you’re a cop.
— ram (@raaammmmmmmmmmm) October 7, 2019
“People didn’t always know that their activity is surfacing,” Shah said. “So you have a case where it’s not serving the use case you built it for, but it’s also causing people to be surprised when their activity is showing up.”
For those of us who did know about the feature and used it regularly to check what posts your ex has been liking, this news will come as a great loss.
Users are feeling a range of emotions:
the following tab on Instagram was always weird and unnecessary
— ben. (@benhomme_) October 7, 2019
i just realized the following tab on my instagram isn’t coming back and i don’t remember the last time i’ve felt feelings like this before ?????
— Dina (@dinduu) October 7, 2019
Instagram dropping the Following tab, means that people can stalk and cheat in peace.
It also means the media will have to find new ways to stalk celebrity habits.
I'm here for it. I always felt like it was too invasive anyway.
— Sassbox Grand Supreme (@MissSassbox) October 7, 2019
Instagram is removing the following activity tab. This will definitely save a few relationships.
— Nigel D. (@NigelDPresents) October 7, 2019
Goodbye to instagram’s “following” tab where friends could see the 60 to 90 basset hound photos and videos that I like on any given day
— Alex Wilcox Cheek (@arwcheek) October 7, 2019
The update will be rolling out this week. R.I.P.