Instagram Rolls Out Custom Icons…but Only For Teens

Some Instagram users are emotion cheated retired of a caller feature, arsenic nan photograph and video sharing app connected Wednesday announced nan motorboat of civilization icons — but only for its teen users.

Teens tin now take from a group of civilization icons that move nan accepted Instagram logo into caller variations that tin beryllium utilized arsenic nan app’s icon connected their phone’s location screen. The action is accessed by tapping nan Instagram logo astatine nan apical of nan location provender aft opening nan app.

Currently, nan civilization icons see renditions of nan Instagram logo styled arsenic neon, clear glass, fire, flowers, greenish slime, and more.

In nan replies to its announcement connected X, users are overwhelmingly pushing backmost against nan thought that specified a characteristic should beryllium age-gated, noting that big users besides want to customize their location screens. Some accused Instagram of chasing Snapchat pinch nan feature. (On Snapchat, users request a paid Snapchat+ subscription to alteration nan app’s icon.) Others said it gave them “MySpace vibes.”

Instagram’s teen accounts, launched successful 2024, adhd further restrictions and built-in protections for minors, including limits connected contented to PG-13 material. The institution earlier this year began utilizing AI exertion to place teens who lied astir their property connected nan societal web and enroll them successful nan much restricted teen accounts.

With civilization icons, nan institution is trying a different approach: utilizing a carrot alternatively of a stick, truthful to speak, to make nan teen accounts look much appealing.

Younger users do make consciousness arsenic a target for customization options, arsenic they’ve overwhelmingly embraced nan iPhone Home Screen customization trend, which saw renewed interest erstwhile Apple introduced widgets successful 2020 pinch nan motorboat of iOS 14. Apple besides made it easier to customize icons pinch improvements to app shortcuts. More recently, Apple has simplified nan process with tinted icons successful iOS 18, which were updated successful iOS 26.

Android users person had these sorts of customization options for acold longer, though nan majority of U.S. teens are connected iPhones.