In recent years, Instagram and Facebook have introduced a means for users to see how much time they have spent using their apps each day, as well as the opportunity for users to establish a time restriction for their daily usage.
But now it seems Instagram has increased the minimum daily time setting to 30 minutes, while before it was 10 or 15 minutes.
One Instagram user informed TechCrunch that the app prompts users to set a new value for their daily timeout, but emphasizing that they can preserve the existing option.
As reported by TechChrunch, the pop-up reads, "Available values for the daily timeout changed as part of the app update," as reported by TechChrunch as observed Wednesday (2/23/2022).
The settings on Facebook are more precise, where users can specify a time limit in increments of five minutes. When a user exceeds their set timeout in one of the apps, a notification flashes to let them know, although they can ignore it.
At the time of announcing the Daily Limit feature, Meta said its purpose was to give individuals more control over the amount of time they spent on its app and to foster conversation between parents and teens about good internet habits.
In November, Instagram began testing its "Take A Break" feature to advise users, especially teens, to put their phones down often. It's not apparent why Instagram modified the regulations by increasing the daily minimum time limit.
However, it's interesting to realize that Facebook's daily active users decreased for the first time in Q4 2021, while user growth across the Meta family of apps (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) stayed practically steady.
Meta forecasts slower revenue growth this year since there's more competition for people's time and users pay more attention to services that produce less cash, like Reels.
Increasing time limitations and making users navigate through Instagram and watch adverts for longer could be one method to counteract these revenue concerns.
In October, Senator Richard Blumenthal stated Meta knew its medicines might be addicting and hazardous to youngsters.
Earlier this month, a bipartisan bill was proposed in the Senate with the purpose of urging the Federal Trade Commission to examine ways to decrease the dangers of algorithmic amplification and addiction to social media on closed platforms.