Instagram is taking a subtle but bold step to quiet your loud friends.
The Facebook-owned photo sharing app will soon let you mute that annoying friend from college who posts incessantly -- without unfollowing (and offending) them.
The mute button, which will roll out to as a test to Instagram users in the coming weeks, has been high up on people's wish lists for years.
Instagram said it could be a helpful feature for "managing complex social dynamics." Whether you're muting someone who irks you -- or slyly muting an ex after a break up -- the tool aims to be a less aggressive option than unfollowing another user. The account holders will not know they are muted.
The feature is part of a larger effort to make it easier for users to personalize their feeds based on what they want to see.
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To mute an account, users will be able to tap the "..." menu next to an account handle, and choose "Mute Posts."
You'll still able to view posts on the muted account's profile page and receive notifications about any comments or posts you're tagged in. User accounts can also be unmuted.
This is already an option for Instagram Stories, which are photos and videos shared by users that disappear after 24 hours.
Facebook has a similar, existing option to prevent seeing a friend's posts in News Feeds. Meanwhile, a Facebook snooze feature allows you to temporarily stop seeing a person's posts for 30 days.
