As Facebook struggles with one piece of bad news after another, Instagram has been–relatively speaking–a peaceable domain within a troubled organization. The company seems to have its mind on making sure that the imagery-sharing service stays that way. It recently took steps to discourage the use of bots that aim to boost an Instagram user’s profile through fake follows, likes, and comments. And now it’s launching a new feature that could help keep its popular Stories feature feeling authentic rather than devolving into a form of status-seeking broadcasting.
Called “Close Friends,” the new option lets you specify a group of people who are, well, close to you. From then on, you can choose to share any given Story only with those folks, potentially allowing you to be more open than you’d be if they were visible to the teeming masses.
