Elaine Jean Tech 10.12.2021 15:Oct PM EDT

Instagram Down Detector: 2 New Features That Will Make Your IG Experience Much Easier

With the recent outage of social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, the latter has created an Instagram Down Detector feature on IG.

Instagram Down Detector

Last Monday, on October 4, Facebook and its family of applications, including Instagram and WhatsApp, were unavailable for several hours, disrupting a critical communications platform used by billions. and demonstrating how reliant the world has become on a firm under fire.

Users reported seeing error warnings in Facebook's apps, which include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Oculus, around 11:40 a.m. Eastern time.

As reported by the New York Times, the interruption lasted more than five hours until several apps progressively came back online. However, the social media giant warned that it would take time for the services to recover.

Facebook users were greeted with an error page or a message stating that their browser was unable to connect to the platform.

However, WhatsApp and Instagram apps were still functional, but no new material was shown, including any messages sent or received during the outage. And because of the massive outrage of users worldwide, Instagram is doing something about it.

New Instagram Feature

Instagram recently published information on how the algorithms function, and how Search works as part of their commitment to giving more information about the inner workings of Instagram.

With that, they released two new features in the Instagram app that will help consumers get more information about outages and their account status.

Instagram Down Detector

According to the official statement of Instagram, they acknowledge how frustrating it can be when temporary glitches occur on the platform through interactions within the community. They also know that when they have an influence on engagement or distribution, it might encourage people to believe that the issues are only unique to them, depending on what they share.

That lack of clarity can be aggravating, which is why IG wants to make it easier to comprehend what's going on by providing straight information from the platform itself.

With that said, Instagram is experimenting with a new feature that will alert you in your Activity Feed when they have a technical issue or outage, as well as when it is resolved.

They won't send out a notification every time there's an outage, but if they notice that people are puzzled and looking for answers, they will use this feature to determine if something like this could provide clarity to the users.

The trial run of this feature will take place in the United States for the next few months.

This, like any experiment, may be scaled up in the future, but the photo-sharing website announced that they wanted to start small and learn.

If the feature is proven effective to help numerous people, the will expand to more after their testings.

Account Status

Instagram established the Support Requests last year to provide people additional information about everything they previously reported on Instagram, such as posts, comments, and profiles, and allows users to know if anything they posted on the platform violated the Community Guidelines.

In a new feature called "Account Status," the social media platform made modifications to further make it more convenient and even easier for users to know what's going on with their respective accounts.

Account Status will serve as our one-stop-shop for keeping track of our personal accounts, and the distribution of our content status.

However, if you believe IG made a mistake in disabling our account, you can appeal directly from your Account Status by selecting "Request a Review."

The company's aim is to start by making it clearer whether or not a user's account is in danger of being disabled.

They also announced that they will provide more information on both this tool and the Instagram down detector in the coming months, giving consumers a greater idea of how their material is spread and recommended across Instagram.