Just around the time when YouTube announced a wider rollout of its Stories section, Instagram is adding a new tool for its own Stories feature and calls it Close Friends. Close Friends will allow a user to share their Instagram Stories to a limited number of people.
Instagram will let you create a single private list of your best friends through search and suggestions and allow you to share more intimate stories with them, and not everyone. While viewing a Story as a ‘close friend’, viewers will be greeted with a green badge which will indicate that you’re viewing a Close Friends-only content.
Instagram has stripped the Close Friends section of any weird additions and thus no one will be notified of their addition or removal from a Close Friends list. The move comes as a way to bring flexibility to sharing more personal and intimate moments with people that you’re close with, without worrying about your parents or strangers viewing the content that you want to share.
In order to add people to the list, users will need to go to your profile and tap on “Close Friends” from the side menu. The list can be seen and controlled only by you and no one outside the list will be able to request for addition. When you share to Stories, you’ll see the option to share with just the people on your close friends’ list. If someone has added you to their list, you will see a green badge when you’re viewing their stories. You’ll also see a green ring around their profile photo in the Stories tray.
Instagram Close Friends is currently rolling out globally and will be available on iOS as well as Android devices using Instagram’s most recent and updated app.