Understanding Quiet Mode on Instagram – And Whether It Will Affect Your Marketing

In 2023, Instagram introduced Quiet mode. This new feature lets people focus on other things instead of getting caught up in Instagram. But how does it work, and will it affect your Instagram marketing efforts?

Introducing Quiet Mode

When you turn on Quiet mode, Instagram will turn off your notifications. Your activity status on your profile will also change.

If someone sends you a direct message (DM), it will send them an auto-reply saying “in Quiet mode” so they know you won’t respond immediately. Instagram points out driving and studying as examples of when Quiet mode will be useful.

• You Can Customize Quiet Mode Hours

  Instead of manually enabling and disabling Quiet mode, you can set it up to turn on and off at certain hours. The schedule is completely customizable, so you can adjust it to fit your needs.

• A Special Prompt for Teens

  In addition to the ability to activate Quiet mode when you want, Instagram will also occasionally prompt users to do so. Specifically, if a teen has spent a certain amount of time on their Instagram page late at night, the app will prompt teens to ask if they want to turn on Quiet mode. This way, they will hopefully be more likely to go to sleep instead of staying up all night scrolling.

• View Notifications After

  When you disable Quiet mode or it automatically turns back off, Instagram will deliver your notifications in the form of a summary. This will let you easily catch up on anything you missed, so you don’t have to worry about missing something important by turning on Quiet mode.

• Availability

  Currently, any Instagram user in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia can use Quiet mode. Instagram hopes to introduce this new feature to more countries soon.

The Goal of Quiet Mode

According to Meta, the intention behind Quiet mode is to provide a tool for improving users’ focus. It will also encourage users to establish healthy boundaries with their followers and friends.

The introduction of Quiet mode was a response to teens telling Meta that they want time to themselves occasionally. Teens additionally told the platform that they want ways to focus during school or at night while they are studying.

How to Turn on Quiet Mode

Using Quiet mode is incredibly intuitive, as with most other functions on Instagram.

• 1. Open the Settings tab in Instagram.

• 2. Select “Notifications.”

• 3. Click on “Quiet mode.”

• 4. Move the slider to the right.

• 5. Decide how long to keep Quiet mode on. You can set it up to last for up to 12 hours.

The above steps will also let you program Quiet mode so it turns on automatically.

Will It Affect Your Marketing?

As with any other update to Instagram, brands want to know how the introduction of Quiet mode will affect their marketing strategies. It should not make a huge difference, as users will still receive notifications.

As mentioned, once Quiet mode is deactivated, Instagram users receive a summary of all the notifications they missed. This means that if one of your followers would have received a notification while they had Quiet mode activated, they will still get it – just at a later time. So, your marketing efforts aren’t necessarily wasted; they will just be seen a few hours later than anticipated.

• You May Want to Reevaluate the Timing of Content

  That being said, remember that all notifications from when Quiet mode was enabled will appear immediately as a summary. This makes it easy for any notifications related to your brand to get lost in a sea of notifications.

  
  

  In that way, the introduction of Quiet mode makes it more important than ever that you post your content when your audience is active. This increases the chances that they will see the content. It also increases the chance that any notifications related to your content don’t get lost in the notification summary following Quiet mode.

• It May Help with Your Work-Life Balance

  There are two sides to marketing – the perspective of the audience and that of the marketer. From your standpoint as the marketer, Quiet mode may help you with your work-life balance. You can easily activate it when you want to take a break from your social media marketing, such as when you finish work for the day or on weekends.

  
  

  You know that you won’t miss anything important, as all of your notifications will be there in a summary when you disable Quiet mode. You also won’t have to worry about delayed responses to DMs, as the auto-reply will let users know your delay is due to Quiet mode.

  This ability to improve your work-life balance can help with your overall satisfaction with your job and may even improve your productivity.

Other Important Announcements from Instagram

The announcement about Quiet mode also included some other updates Instagram users and marketers should be aware of.

• Managing Recommendations

  Previously, if you saw multiple posts in Explore that you weren’t interested in, you would have to mark each individually. Now, you can hide multiple bits of content at once.

  
  

  Additionally, choosing the “Not interested” option for content in Explore now encourages the Instagram algorithm to keep you from seeing that type of content in Search, Reels, and other places. So, your preferences go further in customizing your experience.

• Hide Recommended Posts with Certain Words

  You hopefully already know that you can hide DMs and comments with specific words. Now you can do the same with recommended posts. Select words, hashtags, or emojis to hide. Just navigate to “Privacy” and then “Hidden Words.”

• Parental Supervision

  Parents of teen users will also get more ways to monitor their teens’ choices. Specifically, parents can view their teen’s account and privacy settings. They can also receive notifications when the teen changes these settings.

Conclusion

With the new Quiet mode, you can temporarily turn off notifications on Instagram and set up an auto-reply to DMs. You will receive a summary of the notifications when you return. This won’t affect marketing efforts too much, although it does reemphasize the importance of posting content at the times that your audience is active.