Instagram on Tuesday started the official rollout of its pinned comment feature, which the company first began testing back in May. The feature lets any user pin three comments on a post to the top of a thread, and it’s designed to allow the author of a post to better control the tone of the comment thread through highlighting positivity and moderating more negative and abusive responses that show up below the pinned comments.
The original test coincided with Instagram releasing a tool for the bulk-deletion of comments, which has been live for two months. To pin a comment, just swipe left to reveal the options for reporting, deleting, and replying. Now, on the far left of those three options, you should see a pushpin icon.
Today we’re rolling out pinned comments everywhere.
That means you can a pin a few comments to the top of your feed post and better manage the conversation. pic.twitter.com/iPCMJVLxMh
— Instagram (@instagram) July 7, 2020
Instagram has spent the last few years trying to improve its tools for combating harassment, abuse, and misinformation, and its efforts have intensified under current CEO Adam Mosseri. In particular, Instagram’s comment moderation has improved significantly. The company now uses artificial intelligence to automatically block offensive comments, and it uses similar AI tools to warn users before they post potentially offensive or harmful captions. Pinned comments, while perhaps not as effective a tool as some of those earlier and more needed additions to the platform, can still go a long way in helping popular creators, celebrities, and businesses on Instagram better manage their profiles.
