Instagram Quietly Just Dropped A New Feature That Tells People When You Were Last Active

It is a universally acknowledged fact that everyone hates read receipts forever, right? I don't know if science has looked into this but I am sure that all of science would agree and put it on a plaque or something. They can either make messaging super convenient, orrrr they can accidentally tailspin you into anxiety if you're wondering why a friend who's seen your message hasn't messaged back. Instagram is just the latest to join the party now that Instagram Direct has aded a new "status activity notification" feature. If you're one of the people who wants to find out how to disable the "status activity notification" feature, you are not alone.

Now, you'll get the dreaded word "seen" when someone has read your message — like the read receipt in iMessages or the blue ticks in Whatsapp. So it makes it way harder to ignore people — and even more impossible to deny when you're being ignored. Oh, and you'll be able to see when they were last online, whether it was an hour ago or a day ago. So you'll be able to deduce just how long they've been ignoring you for. Thanks, Instagram.

Admittedly, it is a good feature to have to make sure your human friends are still alive and actually getting your messages — and Instagram thinks it will improve the quality of interactions on the platform. "We’re constantly working on ways to make Direct the best place to have fun, real-time conversations with friends," a rep from Instagram told Refinery29. "We’ve heard from our community that the ability to see when friends were last active helps them feel more connected as they go back and forth in Direct."

And if that wasn't enough, you'll also now get word "typing" showing up in someone's status when they're writing you a message. So when you see someone typing and then they don't actually send a reply, you'll be able to spiral into an existential crisis and start questioning everything you've ever known with ease.

Luckily, there's a way to get rid of it. In fact, it's really easy to disable — here's what you need to do.

There's no need to panic — just head to your settings in Instagram. You know, that weird little gear icon. In your settings, there should be a “Show Activity Status” option. All you have to do is toggle it to "off" and you're in the clear.

But here's the great news — if you toggle it off it will not only make your status invisible, it will make your friend's statuses invisible to you. So, basically, if you've slid into someone's DMs you can put yourself out of your misery. Turn the toggle off so you can stop obsessing over the fact that they've seen it and not replied.

Although to be honest, I really wish there was some kind of lock option. Because what I can see myself doing is turning it back to "on" just for one second to check and then continuing to toggle it off and on depending on my current level of self-control. I'll basically be playing a one-woman game of ping-pong but without the cardio and with more stress-eating vegan donuts.

In the meantime, can we maybe all agree on no more "status activity notification" features? Is there a petition we can sign or something? Because in my opinion, there's really no need for them. Not in in Twitter messages, not in text messages, not in iMessages — I don't even want an effing pigeon to tell me they've delivered my scroll successfully and that recipient threw my scroll in the fire and laughed and laughed and laughed. Call me old-fashioned, but I just don't want to know. So keep disabling, people, and keep your sanity alive.