Instagram just made it a little bit easier to finally grab yourself one of those highly-coveted blue ticks.
Much like Twitter, the ‘blue tick’ is used by Instagram to show that this account has been personally verified by Instagram as being the real account.
In the past if you wanted one of those ticks you would have to wait for Instagram to decide if you were important enough to need one, however that’s all about to change.
Now anyone can apply for verification right within the app, regardless of how many followers they have or who they are.
To apply all you have to do is go to Settings and then tap on Request Verification.
You’ll then be asked to provide your full name as well as a photo of a Government-issued ID such as a driver’s licence, passport etc.
According to Instagram it will then carry out an investigation to determine the “authenticity, uniqueness, completeness and notability of each account.”
In case you’re wondering what that all means the simple fact is the company is looking for accounts that are at a high risk of being imitated. So that could include people who simply have millions of followers, or perhaps those that are considered notable within their fields.
In addition the company announced a swathe of new features designed to increase the transparency of popular accounts on Instagram.
Over the next few weeks the company will start rolling out new features that’ll let you see when that person joined Instagram, how many times they’ve changed their username and perhaps most importantly, the adverts they have currently running on the site.