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Instagram is building a ‘nudity protection’ tool for your DMs

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Instagram’s latest push to give users more control over what they see in the popular photo and video sharing app, may also include what users see in their DMs as well.

On Wednesday, The Verge reported that Instagram was working on a new (optional) tool that would hide unwanted nude photos sent to users via DMs. The still-in-development feature was spotted by Alessandro Paluzzi, who posted a screenshot of the tool on Twitter.

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#Instagram is working on nudity protection for chats 👀

ℹ️ Technology on your device covers photos that may contain nudity in chats. Instagram CAN'T access photos. pic.twitter.com/iA4wO89DFd

— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) September 19, 2022

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According to Paluzzi’s screenshot, the tool is currently called “Nudity protection” and it apparently detects and covers nude photos sent to your DMs. The screenshot shows a brief description of the in-progress tool. This description offers a few interesting details about the feature:

  • While Instagram can detect and cover the photos it deems as containing nudity, it still “can’t access the photos.”
  • The feature still allows users to view the photos if they want to but will keep them covered until they make that choice.
  • The feature can be enabled or disabled in Settings at any time.

The Verge did confirm with Instagram’s parent company, Meta, that the feature’s development is “still in the early stages.” Meta also confirmed that the tool wouldn’t let Meta share the DMs with third parties or even view the messages.

As we mentioned earlier, the “Nudity protection” feature wouldn’t be the first tool IG offered its users as a way to control and customize what they see in the app. If this feature makes it out of development, “Nudity protection” would then join the ranks of IG’s recently expanded Sensitive Content Control, the experimental Not Interested button, and its Hidden Words setting (which can hide offensive comments or message requests).

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