Instagram announce that it has begun rolling out its ‘Take a Break ‘ feature to all countries, including India. This feature allows users to set up reminders to take a break from scrolling after a certain amount of time and can be optionally enable by all users on the service.
Take a Break will join Instagram’s existing Daily Limit feature, that allows users to set a limit on how much time they want to spend on the app daily.
The Meta has partner with youth platform We The Young to spread awareness about the feature, with a campaign calls as Break Zaroori Hai.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri explain that the Take a Break feature is design to remind users to stop using the app, after they have spent a certain amount of time in the app.
Testing “Take a Break” 🧑🔬
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) November 10, 2021
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
This feature is completely optional, and users can pick from 10-, 20-, or 30-minute intervals to be remind to take a break from the app.
This feature is now rolling out to all countries after a couple of months of testing in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
And the Take a Break feature will be optional and users will have to opt in to getting reminders, Instagram says that the feature will show up for users who have been scrolling for a certain amount of time.
You will then be nudge to set up reminders to take more breaks in the future, with “expert-back tips to help them reflect and reset”, as per the company.
Younger users will be shown notifications to suggest enabling the Take a Break feature.
Meta face criticism last year, when whistleblower Frances Haugen reveal that the company’s own research had found Instagram could have detrimental effects on young users’ mental health.
Instagram began to test the Take a Break feature shortly after the revelations, to help younger users who want to reduce time spent on the app.
The new Take a Break feature is now available on Instagram for iOS and will roll out to Android users in the coming weeks, as per the company.
