Instagram to introduce new account memorialization feature

The Facebook owned Instagram is working on a new account memorialization feature that will help to acknowledge a deceased person’s account in a better way.

The photo and video sharing platform Instagram will add a new Remembering banner below the username on a deceased person’s profile as part of their current memorialization feature.

The company has been working on this feature for a while now but because of the coronavirus pandemic, they are accelerating the development o this feature to help the community during this difficult time.

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This new memorialization feature was first discovered by Tipster Jane Manchun who first discovered the new banner and showed it on her own account and shared those pictures on Twitter.

Afterwards Instagram also confirmed the news telling BuzzFeed:

We’ve been working on these updates for some time, though this is one — among others — that we’ve accelerated in light of COVID-19 to help support our community during a difficult time,

The memorialization feature is currently available and family members or close friends of a deceased person can apply for an account to be memorialized through a form on the site. This is usually the person that was entrusted by the original owner of the account to manage it after they’re gone.

After an account is memorialized, the profile will not get deleted and no alterations will be allowed on the profile anymore, that means nobody will be able to login to the account even with a password. The memorialized account will no longer show on the Explore page and no settings on the account can be changed.

Although friends and followers of the account can still send direct messages (DMs) to the account although nobody can read them as nobody will be able to login to the account. This is basically to allow people to remember the person.

The new memorialization feature will basically add a Remembering banner which was previously not present as part of its feature.

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