For all users who don’t want to see private Stories or Reels from someone’s ‘Close Friends’ group, Instagram may soon offer an opt-out option. The platform is reportedly developing a feature that allows users to remove themselves from another user’s Close Friends list.
The unreleased feature was first spotted by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi, who posted screenshots of how the removal option will look on social media. However, the new option is still under development and has not been rolled out for testing yet, as per a report by TechCrunch.
Users will receive a warning before exiting a Close Friends list, indicating they won't have access to that person's Close Friends content unless re-added. The timeline for Instagram's global rollout of this feature remains uncertain.
Although many users have long requested the ability to exit a Close Friends list, doing so might awkwardly convey rejection to those who included them. Meanwhile, Snapchat, a major Instagram rival, already lets users remove themselves from someone’s ‘Best Friends’ list, which is similar to the Close Friends feature on Instagram.
Instagram’s Close Friends feature, introduced in 2018, allows users to share Stories, Reels, and posts with a select group, but users cannot currently remove themselves from someone else’s list.
Meanwhile, Meta is testing paid subscription services across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, offering premium tools for creativity, productivity, and AI. These subscriptions will roll out gradually with different bundles for each platform. Meta is also planning to integrate Manus, its AI agent, into its apps while continuing to offer it as a standalone service for businesses.