Instagram is about to make ‘finsta’ official with Flipside feature

Instagram is trying out another feature aimed at providing users an alternative to finstas. It’s called “flipside,” and it enables users to create a secondary photo grid visible only to specific designated friends.

If that rings a bell, it’s likely because Instagram already provides users with a way to create posts meant for a more exclusive audience. The app introduced the option for users to share grid posts with “close friends” back in November (Close Friends Stories have been around since 2018).

More recently, it experimented with audience lists for Stories, allowing users to create multiple lists for sharing with small groups. Of course, the app also makes it quite straightforward to create a real finsta. Flipside, a bit perplexingly, provides yet another method of essentially doing the same thing. Users build a separate list of friends, different from their “close friends” list, to add to their “flipside.”

Afterward, they can decide whether to post on their main grid or on their “flipside,” which is also reachable from their profile but only viewable to the specified list of friends. If someone has access to someone’s flipside, they’ll spot a key icon in that person’s grid, as per screenshots shared on Threads.

Evidently, even Instagram head Adam Mosseri recognizes that all of this is a bit repetitive.“On one hand it feels good to create a clear space that feels more private,” he wrote in a post on Threads. “On the other, it’s yet another way to reach a smaller audience on top of secondary accounts and Close Friends.”

Flipside was initially noticed in December, but at that time, it was an internal prototype, as per TechCrunch. Now, it has begun to show up for real users, with several reports of it appearing on Threads in the last day.

Initial responses appear to be varied, with some expressing enthusiasm for the update and others questioning why they need another social media profile to manage. Some, quite understandably, seem to be confused. While finstas have often been criticized, Meta’s recent fixation on establishing “more private” spaces on Instagram is probably about more than just adding convenience.