Here's how to opt out of the new Instagram feature that lets random users post your pictures to their story

Instagram

Instagram launched a new feature on Thursday that lets users take photos in their feeds that were posted by others, and add them to their own stories.

It's a great opportunity for influencers hoping to get more exposure for their content, and for regular users who enjoy having their pictures potentially go viral. If you're neither of those however, it might be alarming to know that your account is automatically set to allow this kind of sharing.

It's only available to Android users for now, so iPhone users won't immediately notice the change (it'll hit the iPhone "soon," Instagram told Mashable), but unknowing iPhone users on Instagram can still have their pictures shared on other people's stories.

To use, it, Instagram accounts with access to this feature can tap on the paper airplane icon under images in their feed and select "Create a story with this post," which now appears at the top of the "Share" list. Once the user has done that, the picture will be seen by anyone who views their story, including followers and — if it's a public profile — anyone who happens upon their account.

If this is something you're uncomfortable with, there are two ways to proactively opt-out of it.

Since users can only share your picture to their story if you have a public account, one option would be to make it private.

Go to the Settings cog on your profile and scroll down to toggle "Private Account" on. This makes your profile completely inaccessible to anyone who doesn't follow you, meaning they can't see pictures on it but they also can't share pictures in a direct message or — as of this week — to their story.

Of course, the followers you've allowed to view your private account will still be able to share your photos to their stories.

If you don't want to make your profile completely private, you can turn off the option to "Allow Resharing to Stories," which is now located just above the option to make your account private.

The option to opt-out is already on iPhone users' accounts even if they can't use the feature yet. So, regardless of the phone you have, you can adjust your settings if having your pictures appear on someone else's story isn't really your thing.

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