Instagram has unveiled a new feature that lets quarantined friends get their social media fix together over video.
The feature was quietly switched on to allow users to connect more easily over video and shared content.
The Facebook-owned platform also announced that it was shunning misinformation and promoting reliable content about the outbreak.
Instagram is calling the feature ‘co-watching’ and effectively lets two people video chat while watching livestreamed content on IG TV.
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, said the social media would “play a role in helping to sort of combat loneliness”.
The service is currently being used by more than one billion users around the world.
Mosseri also said that while it is not seeing coordinated disinformation on Instagram around the coronavirus, it said there was lots of “bad advice” on the platform.
Instagram is now directing all users to information from the World Health Organization and local health ministries. The platform has also added “stickers” to verified coronavirus information that has been posted by “a credible health organization”.
Instagram is also letting users donate to nonprofit organizations, as well as links to tips for social distancing.
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