Instagram is considering a new feature called “flipside” that would allow users to create a new private side to their profile where they can post more candid and personal photos to a subset of their friends. This feature basically produces ‘finstas’ – Slang term For alternative Instagram accounts where people post photos of their real lives, rather than the polished photos they post on their public Instagram accounts.
The term has entered mainstream discourse for years, and even became the subject of a series of congressional inquiries when U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, who was not familiar with the matter, brought up the term. asked the company’s global safety chief Antigone Davis: “Will you commit to ending finsta?”, prompting a wave of ridicule online. But at the heart of the question was the idea that younger Instagram users, such as teens, were creating private accounts outside of parental knowledge and Instagram was taking advantage of them.
With The Other Side, Instagram can make it easier to share photos and videos with a private group of friends, without having to create a completely separate account — or perhaps one that exists outside the confines of Instagram’s parental controls.
The feature was spotted in development by a reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi, which he noted was originally called “Your Space.” Based on screenshots pulled from the Instagram app, the company explains that “flipside” refers to “a new space just for you and your friends” where “only the people you choose can see that side of your profile and what you share here.” “
To get to the other side of a user, you can swipe down on their profile to be flipped to the other side, so to speak.
Instagram confirmed to TechCrunch that the project is an internal prototype at the moment and has not entered public testing yet.
#Instagram He continues to work on “Flipside” 👀
ℹ️ Only people you choose can see this side of your profile and what you share here
ℹ️ Everything you share on Flipside is still subject to our community guidelines pic.twitter.com/lDQAjUzbAy– Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) December 10, 2023
However, the development follows the expansion of features that allow users to target some content only to their close friends. Instagram’s Close Friends feature was initially designed to share more private stories, then appeared in November in the app’s main feed. This means that users can share a photo, video or clip with a subset of their friends on the app, which only those users can see and comment on. With the “other side”, if they are published, those posts are supposed to be published in a separate aspect of the user’s profile, rather than mixed in the main feed.
In addition to saving users the hassle of setting up an alternative account, the feature will likely challenge competing social apps designed for close friends, such as BeReal, which requires users to post candid photos daily and is now adding private groups, or other private sharing networks. Locket and similar apps include home screen widgets where new friends’ photos appear. It could also attract users who relied on X’s Close Friends-like Circles feature (formerly Twitter Circles), which was recently shut down.
Instagram didn’t have more to share about Flipside’s development, but Paluzzi found that users will be able to create a profile photo, name, and bio for their flipside that’s different from their public profile. The feature also includes tools to manage which friends can see your other side and a “Remove All” option for a fresh start. He noted that everything users share on the other side will still be subject to Instagram’s community guidelines, however, meaning it won’t be an option for texting.
The company has not confirmed whether or not the Flipside will be released publicly, and internal prototypes often remain so. However, this feature would be an interesting addition to Instagram, because it would take advantage of how people already use the app today. This can lead to increased engagement as well, as users search for their friends’ other side, then browse through a second set of posts.