Instagram last seen feature: Here's how you can turn it off

Facebook-owned Instagram has come up with another feature where you can see you friends' last active on direct messaging.

The feature is already present in Facebook Messenger and Facebook-owned WhatsApp and most social media platforms often tend to adopt each other's prominent features. In tune, Instagram users noticed the new feature on Thursday on their iOS and Android devices.

Soon the messages on Instagram will get a "last seen" feature. So people with whom the user has chatted with will be able to see the time they were last online. This is beside the "seen" option, which was introduced to let users know whether their message had been seen or not.

The newest feature was rolled out as part of the latest updates for Android and iOS devices, so everyone is getting the same deal and there will be no difference between the apps on Android and iOS devices.

Do remember that only those with whom you share private messages and tag in your Instagram Stories will be able to see when you were last active.

WhatsApp's notorious blue ticks were quite irritating for a number of users and not liked by many. Similarly, many users don't want to show everyone when they are online. Thankfully, Instagram allows the users to turn off the "last active" feature.

Anyone who doesn't want this latest feature on their Instagram can go to the Settings option on Instagram, scroll down to Show Activity Status and turn off the toggle switch. 

There's a catch, though: Once you turn off the Show Activity Status, you too won't be able to see when your friends were last active on Instagram.

There are some more minor changes made by Instagram which have not been discussed at the length so far. For example, now it is easier to see who is following you, so if you are looking into an account that follows you but you don't, it will show "Follow back" instead of "Follow."