Instagram is working on a new feature that will help identify accounts of people who are deceased. Account memorialisation on Instagram has been confirmed and the company is reportedly planning to launch it soon due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
This feature was first spotted by Jane Manchun Wong who also shared an image of how it will look. Instagram will add a ‘Remembering’ banner on top of the user’s profile name. When someone opens that profile, there will be a pop-up below with the text – “This account has been memorialized. Memorialized accounts are a place to remember and celebrate someone’s life after they’ve passed away”.
Instagram is working on account memorialization
disclaimer: I’m not actually dead, only in the inside pic.twitter.com/DVIDLLwTAk
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) April 20, 2020
There’s also a section on Instagram’s help section explaining what happens to memorialised accounts. Here, Instagram explains that memorialised accounts will continue to look the same as it did before and will appear only to audiences they were shared with. Also, nobody else will be allowed to log into a memorialised account, or make changes to the photos or videos uploaded on that account.
The new memorialised account feature was confirmed by Instagram Comms’ account on Twitter.
“Yes, we’re making changes to help people identify if an Instagram account belongs to someone who has passed away. We’ll have more to share on this at a later time,” Instagram Comms said in a reply to Jane’s tweet.
Instagram had been working on this feature for quite some time but it has now fastened the process due to Covid-19. “We’ve been working on these updates for some time, though this is one — among others — that we’ve accelerated in light of COVID-19 to help support our community during a difficult time,” BuzzFeed quoted Instagram as saying.
