Instagram started testing a way to manually remove followers from public profiles, giving users more control over who sees what they share on the platform.
Having a public profile on Instagram may help your posts gain more engagement, but it also means that anyone on the platform can follow you. Of course, you can always block a user, but today, Instagram has started testing a softer way: allowing you to remove followers manually.
The news was brought to our attention by social and digital media consultant Matt Navarra who shared a screenshot from Twitter user @blueasyraff:
Instagram now lets you manually remove followers!?!
h/t @blueasyraff pic.twitter.com/McIXETlR7I
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) July 17, 2018
Other users also reported having access to the Remove Follower feature, both on iOS and Android devices. Instagram has since confirmed the test.
People who are part of the test group can go to their profile pages, tap on followers and then on the ••• button (the dots are vertical on Android). Tapping that icon opens up a pop-up that allows users to remove those followers. Instagram added that followers who have been removed are not notified.
Private profiles already could remove followers, but this is new to public profiles.
[box]Read next: Instagram Is Building Non-SMS 2-Factor Authentication[/box]