Instagram has today debuted a new feature that lets you see if your friends are online to DM. Starting today, when your friends are active on Instagram, you’ll see a green dot next to their profile picture in various spaces within the app including the Direct inbox and your friend list when you share a post from the feed.

“DMing friends and connecting over the content you love is more fun when you know your friends are there to see it. This update gives you the ability to have more of those real-time conversations while giving you the control to hide your status altogether.”

It must be kept in mind that the status indicators will only show up for friends who already follow you or for people who you’ve talked to before in Instagram Direct messages.

Of course, you can always hide your own status and turn off the ability to see when your friends are active in your settings.

To find out more about the new feature, visit this link.