Bottom line: Instagram was once seen as a somewhat peaceful place but with the "Facebookification of Instagram" pressing forward, it is becoming more of a true social network platform that consumes a lot of time - something that Facebook itself said it is trying to be more conscious of.
More and more, we're seeing modern apps and services draw inspiration from the programs and platforms of yesteryear. Instagram is the latest such example.
The Facebook-owned photo sharing service has introduced a new feature that shows you when your friends are available to chat. When a pal is online, you'll see a green dot next to their profile picture in various places throughout the app including your friend list and the Direct inbox.
You'll only see status updates from friends that also follow you or someone you have spoken to via Direct. Should you wish, you can easily disable this activity status in the settings menu. Note that it is opt-out.
Instagram earlier this year rolled out video chat, a staple among instant messaging clients like AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. Reddit just this week announced a new feature called Reddit Chat that's a throwback to the chat rooms that once populated the early Internet.
Instagram hopes the new status feature will foster more real-time conversations although some are already questioning whether or not that's a good thing.