Instagram has quietly removed the ability for mobile users to set a daily time limit reminder for less than 30 minutes, moving it into the separate “Take a Break” feature.
Previously, folks could choose to be prodded to close Instagram after just 10 or 15 minutes of browsing Instagram. Now, options start at 30 minutes and go up from there to 45 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, or 3 hours. According to TechCrunch, the move is a money-making tactic; the longer people remain on Instagram, the more ads they’ll be served.
In a fourth quarter earnings presentation earlier this month, parent company Meta announced a drop in daily Facebook users, along with lower-than-expected ad growth. Alongside competition from increasingly popular platforms like TikTok, Meta blames Apple’s iOS privacy changes and new regulations in Europe that make it more difficult to track users via personalized ads.
On Twitter, Instagram Comms responded to TechCrunch’s story to say that its app has “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.”
Take a Break rolled out in November as an opt-in feature that lets people get reminders after 10, 20, or 30 minutes of use. Once that time has elapsed, they’ll be prompted to take a break and provided with a few suggestions for what they can do instead, such as listening to a song or tackling something from a to-do list.
See your options by tapping the hamburger menu on your profile and seleting Your activity (or go to Settings > Account > Your activity). Here, you can select Set reminders to take breaks, which offers 10-, 20-, and 30-minute options. Or tap Set daily time limit for the 30-minute to 3-hour prompts. If you’re not aware of the separate Take a Break option, it’s easy to set your daily limit to a higher threshold under the latter option.
The Facebook app, meanwhile, lets folks set a daily time reminder for anywhere between five minutes and 24 hours.
