Instagram Tests Notifications Alerting Users Of Outages After Worldwide Blackout
Photo 133465736 © Michele Ursi | Dreamstime.com
The next time Instagram is down, you’ll probably hear it straight from the horse’s mouth.
A week after a human error that kept social media users out of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger for hours, Facebook-owned Instagram is experimenting with notifications to let people know if there’s an outage or technical issue.
The company reasons that when engagement levels of certain posts are lower than usual, users might be led to believe that the problem comes from their own content. “That lack of clarity can be frustrating, which is why we want it to be easier to understand what’s going on, directly from us.” AKA not from Twitter.
Photo 133465736 © Instagram
The alert, still a work in progress, would appear in Activity Feeds when Instagram isn’t running in its natural state. Acknowledging that users don’t like being inundated with notifications, Instagram says that they won’t be sent out “every single time there is an outage.”
“But when we see that people are confused and looking for answers, we’ll determine if something like this could help make things clearer,” the company elaborates.
Users would additionally be informed when the app is back up and running as per normal.
The feature is currently being tested in the US, and Instagram foresees that trials would run for a few months.
“Just like any experiment, this may be something we roll out more widely, but we want to start small and learn,” it adds. If the notifications prove to be helpful, Instagram might roll them out on a larger scale.
Photo 133465736 © Instagram
[via TNW, cover photo 133465736 © Michele Ursi | Dreamstime.com]
Also check out these recent news
