In recent years, Instagram and Facebook have offered a way for users to see how much time they have spent using their apps each day, as well as the option for users to set a time limit for their daily usage.
But now it seems Instagram has increased the minimum daily time setting to 30 minutes, before it was 10 or 15 minutes.
One Instagram user told TechCrunch that the app asks them to set a new value for their daily timeout, though noting that they can keep the existing setting.
"Available values for the daily timeout changed as part of the app update," the pop-up reads as reported by TechChrunch as seen Wednesday (23/2/2022).
The settings on Facebook are more detailed where users can choose a time limit in increments of five minutes. When a user reaches their chosen timeout in one of the apps, a notification appears to let them know, although they can ignore it.
At the time of launching the Daily Limit feature, Meta said its aim was to give people more control over the amount of time they spend on its app and to encourage conversation between parents and teens about healthy online habits.
In November, Instagram began testing its "Take A Break" feature to remind users, especially teens, to put their phones down often. It's not clear why Instagram changed the rules by increasing the daily minimum time limit.
However, it's interesting considering that Facebook's daily active users fell for the first time in Q4 2021 while user growth across the Meta family of apps (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) remained nearly flat.
Meta expects slower revenue growth this year as there's more competition for people's time and users pay more attention to features that generate less revenue, like Reels.
Increasing time limits and making users scroll through Instagram and view ads for longer, could be one way to offset these revenue problems.
In October, Senator Richard Blumenthal said Meta knew its products could be addictive and toxic to children.
Earlier this month, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate with the aim of asking the Federal Trade Commission to study ways to reduce the dangers of algorithmic amplification and addiction to social media on closed platforms.