Instagram “Secret Friends” - what is this?

[mjohnsoncode]

Recently saw people talking about something called Instagram “Secret Friends”.

From what I understand it looks similar to Close Friends, but the weird part is that the feature isn’t actually available to normal users. It mostly appeared in a celebrity promo case and nowhere else.

Which makes me wonder - what is this supposed to be?

Instagram already has Close Friends, so creating another “private circle” doesn’t really make much sense unless they’re testing something different.

Could be:

• just a PR campaign / promo feature
• a small internal experiment
• or something that will later replace Close Friends

Right now it feels more like a marketing stunt than a real feature.

Has anyone actually seen this appear on their account?

 

[ToyBox Marketing]

Which country are you based from? Right now; most users see "close friends"; however new features are normally released to certain countries before the larger update is pushed.

 

[Razentyler]

I dont see any news or any updates regarding to secret friends, Not sure whats the case about this.

 

[sophianguyen]

Which country are you in? Until now, I’ve only heard of “Close Friends” and “Secret Friend,” so I guess that feature is still being tested

 

[CashPhantom]

Its just a test feature Instagram shows to some accounts. Not available to normal users yet. Likely an experiment or promo, nothing official for everyone.

 

[Spark Marketing Agency]

I haven’t seen this feature on regular accounts yet. It looks more like a limited test or promotional experiment.

 

[Nikolaos]

I dont see any news or any updates regarding to secret friends, Not sure whats the case about this.

Same here; my "news radar" hasn't picked up anything.

 

[WindSpace Agency]

I haven’t seen this feature on my account either.
It might just be a small test or promotional feature for certain creators.

 

[Invictus]

interesting, not available yet for all of us

 

[HeroSMS]

It definitely looks like a high-level marketing stunt or a limited alpha test for creators. Instagram often rolls out these 'exclusive' features to celebrity accounts first to build hype before either killing the project or merging it with the existing Close Friends API.

 

[Fable_dev]

not seeing this feature, is it for a specific region?

 

[nikmarketing]

I heard they will start testing it with legacy verified accounts first within the USA

 

[Prosupport333]

Recently saw people talking about something called Instagram “Secret Friends”.

From what I understand it looks similar to Close Friends, but the weird part is that the feature isn’t actually available to normal users. It mostly appeared in a celebrity promo case and nowhere else.

Which makes me wonder - what is this supposed to be?

Instagram already has Close Friends, so creating another “private circle” doesn’t really make much sense unless they’re testing something different.

Could be:

• just a PR campaign / promo feature
• a small internal experiment
• or something that will later replace Close Friends

Right now it feels more like a marketing stunt than a real feature.

Has anyone actually seen this appear on their account?

From what I’ve seen, it looks like a mix of testing and a promotional campaign rather than a real feature rollout. A lot of people first noticed it on celebrity accounts (like Selena Gomez), and the “Secret Friends” label with the yellow ring appeared as part of a specific promotion.

Instagram often experiments with new sharing tiers beyond Close Friends, especially with creators and big accounts first. Some reports suggest the idea behind it is an even smaller private circle than Close Friends, where content is shared with a very limited group and others don’t even know it exists.

Right now it seems more like a test or campaign format rather than a feature available to everyone. Instagram usually tests things with creators first before deciding if it’s worth rolling out globally.

 

[tommier5hurry]

I haven't seen any news or updates related to that, so I'm not sure what's going on.