Instagram is the prominent social media application platform utilized by the majority of people Worldwide. When a person you follow on Instagram posts a new story, their profile picture appears encircled by a pink-red circle in the story panel. The red circle on an Instagram story means that we have not seen the story yet. Once you view the story, the red circle disappears.
Every Instagram user knows about red circles. But sometimes, you see a green circle on an Instagram story instead of the regular red circle. Now, this confuses a lot of people. So, here’s everything you need to know about the green circle on Instagram.
What Does A Green Circle Mean On Instagram?
The Green Circle in the story denotes that the post can only be viewed only by the user’s close friends. Posting videos and pictures have become a common tradition on social media. Even though posting pictures online has become common, most people will be reluctant because of fear of morphing and the abusive usage of the photographs. To put an end to those fears of advanced technology, Instagram has introduced a new feature for its users. The user can restrict or enable permission to specific people in their friend’s circle to view their stories posted online. Thus the restricted stories will be denoted with a Green Circle on the Instagram Story.
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Thus, the story will only be watched by the close friends of the user. Thus people have the liberty to choose their story viewers by using this feature on Instagram. This new feature was utilized and cherished by most of Instagram users. Therefore, granting the ability to limit a story’s audience is a smart move from Instagram.
Instagram’s “Close Friends” list also resembles the “Who can see your post?” feature on Facebook, which allows you to choose among some audience options, such as Public, Friends, Only me…
How Do You Get The Green Circle Instagram Story?
Here are some simple steps to create a “Close Friends” list for your new story:
Step 1: Get access to your Instagram personal profile tab.
Step 2: Open the menu (the top-right icon), and choose “Close Friends”.
Step 3: Add people who deserve to be on your close friend list.
When you have people on the Close Friends list, you get two options while posting stories. One option for sharing it publicly and the other option for sharing it privately with the people on your Close Friends list.
If you share your story with your close friends, the friends added to your list will see a green ring around your profile picture.
You can always add or remove people from the Close Friends list. Instagram does not notify the other person when you add or remove them from your Close Friends list. But, the person could easily figure out by noticing the appearance or the disappearance of the green circle around your profile.
Step-by-step guide on how you can add users to your close friends’ list on Instagram
Step 1: Go to the home page of Instagram and tap on the camera icon on the top-left of your screen.
Step 2: Tap on “Close Friends” beside the “Your Story” icon.
Step 3: Tap on “Add to list”, then tap on “Get Started”.
Step 4: Find and select the users that you want to add by tapping on the “Add” button.
Step 5: After you’ve added the users that you want to add, share the story to your close friends’ list by tapping on “Close Friends”.
To share a story with your close friends in the future, all you have to do is to tap on the green icon with a star beside the “Your Story” icon. Afterward, there will be a green circle around your profile and only your close friends will be able to view it.
You can edit your close friends’ list at any time (e.g. add, remove). Whenever you add someone to your close friends’ list, they won’t be notified of it.
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How to turn off the green circle on your Instagram story?
To get rid of the green circle on Instagram stories, you can either unfollow, mute, or block the user.
If someone has a green ring around their profile, it means that they’ve added you to their close friends’ list.
In order to remove yourself from their close friends’ list, you need to block them. Otherwise, you can unfollow or mute their stories if you don’t want to see them on your timeline.
The first option is to unfollow the user. You can do so by going to their profile > following > unfollow.
When you unfollow the user on Instagram, you will no longer see their stories on your timeline even though you’re still on their close friends list. Secondly, you can choose to mute the user’s stories; which is the most effective method out of the three. To mute the user’s stories, go to their profile > following > mute > stories. When you mute someone’s stories, they won’t be notified of it, and you won’t see their stories on your timeline.
The last method is by blocking the user, which is not recommended for using. When you block someone on Instagram, your profile will be hidden from them, and you can no longer view their posts and stories. Consequently, you will be removed from their close friends list.
However, it’s best to mute the person’s stories instead of blocking them unless you want to prevent them from viewing your posts and stories as well.
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Summing Up
It is the prominent query among the Instagram users of today’s scenario and the Green Circle is the indication of enabling permission for specific people to watch their Instagram Stories. Thus, the followers that are not on the person’s close friends list will not be able to see the story. The close friends list is a feature where you can limit who can watch your stories.
Back in June 2017, Instagram announced that they’ll be releasing a feature called “favorites”. This is due to the rise of private Instagram accounts with “selective” followers. More than a year later, Instagram launched and renamed the feature to “close friends”. For now, the feature is only limited to stories.
