Instagram is finally adding a way to leave someone's Close Friends list

In late 2018, Instagram introduced "Close Friends," a feature that allowed users to handpick a special group of individuals, letting them share things like Stories, Notes (added in October 2022), Reels, feed posts (rolled out in November 2023), and live streams (tested in January 2024) exclusively with this select group. You could tell when a post is meant for "Close Friends" because it carries a green star icon, or if it is a story, a green ring circles the profile picture.

Now, Meta has confirmed to TechCrunch that it is working on a feature that will let you remove yourself from someone's "Close Friends" list. The company states this particular feature is still very much in its early stages and remains unavailable for public testing. This new ability will undoubtedly come as a relief to many who might find themselves on a list they do not wish to be part of.

Meta's confirmation came after app researcher and reverse engineer, Alessandro Paluzzi, shared screenshots of the internal prototype. Paluzzi showed that Instagram will warn you: if you bounce from a "Close Friends" list, you will not see that person's exclusive content again unless they re-add you.

Apart from the "Close Friends" update, other features Paluzzi has uncovered include a number of Instagram Subscription perks like unlimited audience lists and the ability to see which followers do not follow you back. He also spotted work on integrating a shortcut to Manus AI within the app.

In much serious Instagram news, earlier this month, cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes claimed that cybercriminals had stolen sensitive information (physical addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses) from 17.5 million Instagram accounts. The claims gained some traction after users reported receiving unsolicited password reset and recovery emails from official Instagram support channels.

Instagram later denied any system breach, claiming that a bug allowed an external party to simply request password reset emails for "some people," advising users to disregard such messages.