With the sheer user base it has generated, over 150 million, one might expect Instagram to finally start verifying high profile accounts so that followers are not deceived by fake accounts. Twitter has one of the few services to first implement the verified account system, it awarded a blue tick to users who had verified accounts, early on the privilege was only limited to celebrities and high profile individuals such as politicians, renowned journalists, etc. Facebook also followed suit with verified profiles. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, acknowledges that verified accounts have been a “highly requested feature,” but the company is not currently working on it.
Instagram’s comments come after hidden developer options were discovered in its Android APK, a “Verification” feature was found. This lead many to believe that perhaps Instagram might finally start verifying user accounts. The verified tags can be enabled right now by editing a line of code, but despite that enabling tags is possible, the feature itself isn’t live now meaning that merely enabling the tag doesn’t mean that the account gets officially verified by Instagram. The tag itself isn’t that appealing, a simple gray box with white lettered text inside. Instagram’s comments make it clear that verified accounts aren’t coming anytime soon, but by its own admission, we know that the community is actively pushing for that feature. When will Instagram finally give in? We’ll have to wait and see. [Image via TechCrunch]