According to a tipster cited by TechCrunch, Instagram has now set the minimum time limit for daily reminders to 30 minutes. This means users will have to use the app for at least 30 minutes before getting the reminders. As the screenshot shows, the first option is for reminders to appear after three hours of Instagram use. While the 30-minute option sits right at the bottom. If the user had previously chosen to receive reminders every 10 minutes, Instagram now tells them to revise the option. There’s even a note that reads – “This value is no longer supported. Please edit.”
This may seem harmless at first glance. But the motive is quite clear – encourage users to spend more time on Instagram, thus allowing Meta to push more ads to the users. As TechCrunch points out, this move could also be driven by Meta’s poor showing at the recent quarterly earnings call.
Meta said the removal of 10-minute intervals was the result of a new time management feature
In any case, this update is sure to catch the eye of the regulators. It’s no secret that the announcement of Take a Break was a reaction to the criticism from the public as well as U.S. lawmakers about the app’s role in furthering social media addiction. Hours after these revelations, Meta published a statement explaining the move. It said the removal of 10-minute and 15-minute values occurred due to a new time management feature (unsurprisingly) called Take A Break. “We have two time management features. Our existing ‘daily limit’ shows you a notification when you’ve hit your daily limit, but our newest feature ‘Take A Break’ shows you full-screen reminders to leave the app, and includes 10 minute intervals. We changed the ‘daily limit’ options to avoid sending people multiple notifications at the same time,” the statement read. But this doesn’t explain why users aren’t seeing the new option on Instagram. There’s actually no mention of it at all in the screenshots shared by the tipster. A CNN report in December pointed out that Take A Break merely works as a pop-up that resets whenever the user interacts with it. So while the pop-up may encourage the user to close the app, users are free to reopen the app and go through the entire process again.
