Instagram introduces new feature but users say it's 'humiliating' and going to cause break ups
The art of the soft launch just got even easier thanks to a new Instagram feature, but some are slamming the new tool as awkward and embarrassing.
New relationships can be hard to navigate, when should you become official, when can you share them online?
If you suddenly start seeing a load of blurry and pixelated Stories, don’t worry, your phone hasn’t broken.
Instagram has now introduced a new function which allows users pixel-blur people in their posts.
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While it might have been designed as a handy editing tool, some users have already found a rather more awkward use for it: hiding your partner.
The new Pixel effect allows users to blur people or objects in a photo using a text prompt.
Rather than manually covering someone's face with a sticker or drawing over them, users can ask Instagram to pixelate a particular person or part of an image.
The result can make someone almost impossible to identify while still leaving the rest of the photograph untouched.
For the uninitiated, a soft launch is the social media equivalent of saying “I'm seeing someone” without actually saying it.
A hand appears in the corner of a pic, someone's trainers are visible under a restaurant table.
Perhaps there is a suspiciously cropped shoulder on a beach holiday.
The relationship is technically private, but everyone knows exactly what is going on.
Now, instead of gradually revealing a partner, Instagram gives users another option: make them look like they have been caught on a 1990s CCTV camera.
There are plenty of legitimate reasons someone might want to hide a person from a photograph; they might want to protect a friend's privacy, or obscure a stranger in the background.
Instagram announced the Meta AI feature in a post, writing: "Soft launching? we got you.
"Use the Pixel effect in Stories and edit the prompt to call out what you want pixelated — like “the person on the right.” swipe to see the exact wording we used to try it yourself."
There’s a whole other problem, as some people pointed out they might deliberately choose to hide a long-term partner.
One commenter didn’t hold back: “Unless you post progressive unblurring in back to back stories as a whimsical bit, its just a humiliation ritual”.
"If you are going to blur someone then don’t post the person in the first place," another argued.
However, one person defended: "This is actually a great feature for parents who don’t want to share their children."
"Imagine being in a relationship and your girl says lets take a photo next day you see it on her Instagram and your face is blurred" said another.
One insisted: "Don’t post at all! If you have to blur someone just to 'soft launch' the relationship, maybe the relationship doesn’t need to be on Instagram in the first place. Instagram and its weird updates nobody asked for."
Instagram itself has not suggested that the feature should be used for this purpose specifically.
The feature could actually prove useful for creators and ordinary users who simply want more control over what appears in their Stories.
Someone walking through a busy street, for example, could blur an unrelated person's face before uploading the photograph.
Imagine the awkwardness of getting that text: “Why did you blur me?”
For anyone who finds themselves mysteriously transformed into a heavily pixelated figure in their partner's next Story, there may be a more important question than what filter was used.
Why exactly are they being hidden?
At least Instagram has now made it possible to hide the evidence, but whether it can help users hide the resulting argument is another matter.
Topics: Instagram, Social Media, Sex and Relationships, Technology
Jen Thomas