Skip to main content

Instagram changes Close Friends to ‘Selected People’ in new test [U: Rolled back]

Update: After six months of tests, Instagram is letting its Brazilian users know that the company is backpedaling from Selected People and bringing back the Close Friends option. Although Instagram didn’t specify the reason, tests were very buggy and users couldn’t properly change different users depending on the Story posted. That said, it’s unlikely that Instagram will release this feature to more countries in the near future.

Instagram today announced a new test for its Stories function. Starting today, Close Friends will be called Selected People and will let users select exactly who can see some of their Stories for 24 hours.

This feature will start as an exclusive test in Brazil, and it’s unclear when it will launch for all users or open its tests for more countries.

It’s important to note that Selected Stories is just a variation of Close Friends, and it’s different from the feature reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi discovered that’s called “Exclusive Stories.” This one will be for content creators to charge for its content, something similar to what Twitter has been doing with its Super Follows function.

Instagram Stories has become the place to express yourself and share your daily moments. And, sometimes, people don’t want to share the same content with everybody. The ability to select different groups of people to share Stories was already something our community was asking for a while.

With the Selected People test, it will work similar to the Close Friends list, except you can uncheck some users of your Close Friends list to see a post. Here’s how it’s going to work:

  • When creating a Story, tap to open the Share button
  • Choose “Selected People” to see all profiles that can see your Story
  • Change who can see your Story by selecting or unchecking profiles
  • Your list will keep unchanged until it’s edited again

Before, with the ‘Close Friends’ feature, people could only share Stories with the same list of friends without being able to edit it. With this test, you’ll be able to add, remove, or keep people on your list with different Stories.

What do you think of this function? Are you excited to try “Selected People?” Tell us in the comment section below.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel