Instagram announced a while ago that it would introduce a feature that allowed users to track how much time they spend on the app. That feature, dubbed Activity is now live for both iOS and Android users. Make sure you’re running the latest version of the app and you will be able to view your Instagram Activity, and limit how much time you spend on it. Here’s how.
Open Instagram and go to your Profile tab. Tap the hamburger/more options icon at the top right. In the navigation drawer that opens, you will see a ‘Your Activity’ option. If you don’t see it, give it a day or two.
When you tap Your Activity, it will show you how much time, on average, you spend on Instagram. Each bar corresponds to time spent on a particular day. If you tap and hold on a bar, it will show you how much time you spent on Instagram on that day.
To limit how much time you spend on Instagram, tap the ‘Set Daily Reminder’ option under the activity graph. Select how long you want to use Instagram, and tap Set Reminder.
You can also manage your notifications settings from this same screen though it doesn’t offer any new settings. It’s the same ones the app had before the activity controls were added.
When your allotted activity time runs out, i.e., you’ve used Instagram for longer than you’ve set in the Daily Reminder, you will see an on-screen alert telling you how much time you’ve spent. You can dismiss it and continue using Instagram if you want. It isn’t going to force you off the app. You can also edit the reminder time from the alert if you need to.
Social media can soak up a lot of time and people are realizing that spending too much time on any sort of social media platform is bad for you. It isn’t just because you’re constantly staring at a screen but also because it can have an impact on your mental health. iOS 12 has a feature called Screen Time that lets you limit how long you use social media apps on your phone. However, consuming too much social media isn’t a platform specific problem. Everyone, regardless if they use an iPhone or an Android phone, needs to keep track of their social media consumption which is why it makes sense for apps to have the feature built-in instead of relying on the OS to add it.
