Instagram gets tool to show how much time users spend in app app

Instagram is getting a built-in tool to show how much time users spend within the social network’s app. The Facebook subsidiary wants to make users more aware of how they spend time online.

Instagram director Kevin Systrom says that the tools should contribute to the solution for gaining insight into what people spend time on online. Thereby he emphasizes that everyone should think every minute on Instagram is positive, by which he presumably means that people should not feel addicted to the social network.

Google recently announced new features for Android P along the same lines. With Dashboard, users can keep an eye on how long they are in which app, after which they can set timers for using that app.

Systrom is announcing the features after TechCrunch deduced that the option was coming, based on code from the apk file of the Android version of the app. There will also be an emoji bar to quickly respond to a photo with an emoji.

It is unknown when the new features will appear in Instagram. The social network also recently announced it will monitor comments to remove negative comments from trolls through algorithms.