While social media is addictive, it has been mobile OS makers that have added features to help you control your scrolling habits. You have Google’s Digital Wellbeing, as well as Apple’s Screen Time. But now, it looks like Instagram wants its own, and is testing the feature that’s simply called “take a Break”.
Instagram head Asam Mosseri made the announcement on Twitter. In describing the feature, he says it’s an opt-in one, which lets you get the app to tell you to take a break after some time. In the announcement tweet, the accompanying video shows that you’ll have a choice of 10, 20 or 30 minutes. The notification itself will ask you to do a number of things relating to mental health, like taking deep breaths, writing down your thoughts and listening to your favourite song.
Testing “Take a Break” 🧑🔬
We started testing a new feature called “Take a Break” this week. This opt-in control enables you to receive break reminders in-app after a duration of your choosing.
I’m excited to dig into the results & hopefully launch this sometime in December. ✌🏼 pic.twitter.com/WdSTjL6ZdH
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) November 10, 2021
As with most feature tests, Mosseri says that a small number of users will see this “Take a Break” feature on Instagram “over the coming days”. The full feature rollout is, for now, expected to rollout sometime in December.
Facebook already has a similar feature, in the form of Quiet Mode, so it’s nice to see Instagram getting this as well. Though it’s a little jarring to see the year-and-a-half gap between the two.
(Source: Adam Mosseri / Twitter)
