Instagram’s user base is growing at a rapid clip. The Facebook-owned social network announced on Wednesday that it’s now home to more than 300 million users who share more than 70 million pieces of content daily. The company, which now has more users than Twitter, also noted some of the new features it has added along the way, such as the new Explore option added in November, and now it’s delivering another much requested tweak: verified accounts.
If you’re unfamiliar, verified accounts are typically the ones on social networks with a little badge that informs you the person posting content is indeed the real deal. Instagram is now rolling out that feature for brands, celebrities and athletes, and said that users will start to notice verified accounts popping up in their feeds over the next couple of days.
Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom said the move to add verified accounts is part of a larger goal to decrease “spammy” accounts on the social network and to improve the experience for all users. As a result, he says some users may notice a small decrease in followers — at least if those followers were bots that Instagram has deleted — but that seems like a fair trade-off to keep the social network clean.