There are times when you just want to avoid a message on Instagram but the "seen" status can put you in a dilemma. To avoid this moral obligation, Instagram has now introduced the ability to turn off read receipts so that you can easily avoid replying to messages.

Adam Mosseri, via his broadcast channel, announced that Instagram is testing the ability to turn off read receipts so that there is no "seen" status at all. So it can be convenient to avoid strange or uncomfortable conversations.

This setting can also protect your privacy, so avoiding a message isn't necessarily the reason to turn off read receipts. The option to hide read receipts was introduced a long time ago on WhatsApp, which does not turn the double characters blue when enabled. When enabled, the ticks will turn blue when someone reads the message. The option to disable read receipts will be available under the Privacy and security settings and comes in addition to the Vanish mode which makes the seen messages disappear.

It's strange that Instagram caught on to the feature just now, but at least it was considering it. Another feature Instagram could consider is the ability to archive chats, which could be a good way to clean up the DM section so people can focus on the ones that matter. I hope this becomes an official feature soon!