Instagram is now making it easier for one to acknowledge the account of a deceased relative/friend. This feature will enable a ‘Remembering’ banner under the username after they have died and the account memorialised.

According to Instagram, the feature has been in the works for some time now but had to accelerate the efforts due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The exact launch date hasn’t been revealed though.

The feature was first spotted by a tipster, Jane Manchun Wong, who tested it on her own account and then shared a screenshot to demonstrate how the banner looks like.

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Image courtesy Twitter/Jane Manchun Wong

“We’ve been working on these updates for some time, though this is one — among others — that we’ve accelerated in light of COVID-19 to help support our community during a difficult time,” Liza Crenshaw, a spokesperson for Instagram told BuzzFeed News.

The platform has obviously been allowing users to memorialise an account for a while now, the ‘remembering’ banner is what’s new. Once an account has been memorialised, Instagram normally does not allow anyone to log into it. The accounts are also hidden from public spaces like the Explore section. No further changes can then be made on the account or profile info.

While these features will continue to exist, Instagram will now add a ‘Remembering’ banner to help differentiate a deceased person’s account better.

It is understandable that Instagram would want to speed up the implementation of this feature, given the increasing number of deaths from COVID-19. According to the latest figures (as of publishing time), over 182 thousand people have lost their lives due to the novel coronavirus.