Topics is testing a way to hide your replies from your profile

Instagram TopicsMeta, a competitor to Elon Musk’s X, is testing a way to make your replies to others’ posts less visible on the platform.

The company is adding a new privacy feature that allows you to customize your profile to remove the tab that displays your responses. This leaves only the two tabs that show Posts and Reposts.

The extension provides the option to make your profile and use of topics more private, without having to switch to a completely private profile, which would limit the visibility of your posts to only your followers and those you choose to respond to.

While the main For You feed of topics provides a mix of posts, Including responsesare less likely to be shown by the algorithm, which actually reduces their visibility. Offering a feature that stops others from being able to view your responses on your profile may make it more difficult for others to see it.

The feature was first discovered by Threads user and Reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzziwho said the option has been rolled out to the iOS app. An Instagram spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that the option to show or hide replies was something the company recently began testing with a “small number of people,” and has not yet launched publicly.

To find out if you have this feature, you can click the Edit Profile button on your Topics user profile and then scroll down to the option called Show Your Responses. By default, this option is enabled, but you can choose to turn it off. The company points out that even if you disable showing your replies publicly, you can still view your replies from the Threads app settings, where you can also view other types of content like saved items, likes, archives, and more.

This is not the only control over the responses given by subjects. The company previously launched a way to limit who can reply to your posts, allowing you to choose between anyone, profiles you follow, or just those you’ve mentioned — similar to X.

Hiding more personal interactions such as replies can help boost engagement between thread users. Likewise, X earlier this year chose to make it Everyone’s likes are specialso users will feel more comfortable when engaging with the content, which also helps in providing recommendations for X.