Instagram Adds A Feature That Warns Users When Something Goes Wrong

Many people worldwide rely heavily on Instagram to keep in touch with friends and family or make a living. Instagram has announced a new commitment to share more information about what's going on behind the scenes on the social network. Two new features have been revealed designed to give people information about outages and their account status directly within the Instagram app.Instagram says it's testing a feature that will notify users in their Activity Feed when an outage or technical issue has been reported. The social network will also report when the issue is resolved. Instagram says that it won't provide notifications every time there is an outage. However, if it finds people are looking for answers, it will use the notifications if it believes notification will make things easier.

To start, the test will operate in the US over the next few months. Instagram warns it may take some time before the feature is rolled out widely because it will start with a small group for testing before full deployment. Instagram has also announced a new tool called Account Status.

Account Status was designed to be a single location to allow users to see what's happening with their account and content distribution. For starters, Account Status is intended to make it easier for users to understand if their account is at risk of being disabled. Over the coming months, Instagram plans to add additional features to give users an understanding of how content is distributed and recommended across the network.

Instagram also includes a "Request a Review" feature within the Account Status area for those who believe their post was removed by mistake. Instagram promises more details on both features will come in the future. It's unclear how large of a test audience these features will be enabled for at this time.