One week after a massive Facebook blackout that takes all the social networking applications offline for more than six hours, Instagram says it is a notification test that will notify users for “temporary problems” such as blackouts or other technical problems.
A new warning will appear in user activity feeds, along with notifications in other applications. Messages can be used to notify users about certain problems, such as uploading stories that do not work, or a broader problem, such as both blackouts last week. Important, Instagram said it did not plan to remind users for every problem, but that might be a widespread source of confusion.
“We will not send notifications every time there are blackouts, but when we see that people are confused and find answers, we will determine whether something like this can help make things clearer,” Instagram wrote in a blog post. The company added that it was testing features in the US “for the next few months.”
Separately, Instagram also shows off the new “account status” section of the application, which is intended to remind users for “what happens to your account” more general. Instagram says it starts with notifications about deleted posts and when a “risky disabled” account due to violation of the rules.
According to Instagram, this feature is intended to make it easier for users to understand why posts may have been removed, and whether they might be in danger or not because they lose the account at all. While the application has notified users in the past when a post is labeled or removed, the company does not always do good work so people know which policies they are violated. The surveillance board has repeatedly told Facebook, it is necessary to do a better job in explaining the rules to users, and account status can help them do that.
Account status can also help address more specific Instagram problems: concerns over “Shadowbanning.” Instagram said that “in the coming months” he plans to update the account status to notify people “how their content is distributed and recommended in various parts of Instagram.”