How to . . . turn off Instagram’s new over-sharing feature

Did you notice the small change Instagram made recently? If you don't use direct messaging on the photo-sharing platform too often, it may have passed you by. In your direct messages folder, you can now see the last time your friends were active on the platform. And it's switched on by default.

Maybe you don’t see it as a big deal. After all, what’s the harm in people knowing when you were last on Instagram? Perhaps you’ve been trying to avoid a particular message; maybe you’d rather not have the pressure of messages arriving because others know you’re online, making you feel like you should reply immediately. Or maybe you just don’t want your Instagram followers to know when you’re online because it’s no one else’s business.

Whatever the reason, it can be easily turned off.

Open the Instagram app and click your account. Click the settings icon and scroll down. Near the end, there is an option “Show activity status”. Turn the slider to off.