Instagram introduces new feature to use less data: In an effort to provide an uninterrupted Instagram browsing experience to people in slow internet areas, the company announced a new feature designed to save data.
With this opt-in mode, people across the world can view their favourite content on Instagram Story Saver with reduced image loading time, by reducing the amount of data that Instagram uses on their mobile phones.
Designed specifically for emerging markets where data plans and internet speeds may be limited, the feature will not pre-load videos, and it will not download high-resolution images, except in certain circumstances that the user chooses. This gives people the ability to control their data usage on Instagram and increase the speed for loading images.
As per Ookla’sSpeedtest Global index*, India’s mobile internet speeds dipped in the month of April 2019, with its rank down to 121 from the earlier ranking of 108 which it had in December 2018.
Manish Chopra, Director and Head of Partnerships, Facebook India, while announcing this feature, said, ‘Instagram gets people closer to the people and things they love. The community’s power lies in visual storytelling and sharing amazing social video moments. With this data saver feature, we’re hoping for an uninterrupted Instagram experience in slow network areas, which in turn will increase people’s interactions with their friends and family.’
To activate the feature on your app, go to “Settings,” then “Account,” then “Cellular Data Use” — and then you will be able to turn this setting on, which will prevent the loading of videos and high-resolution media in advance. Once this setting is enabled, you’ll be able to choose among three options for how Instagram will show you high-resolution media including “Never,” “Wi-Fi Only,” and “Cellular + Wi-Fi”.
The feature will be available globally for Android users and will roll out slowly over the course of a week.
