San Francisco, Mar 13 (IANS): Facebook-owned photo-messaging app Instagram is giving users more control over their notifications by rolling out an option that would mute app notifications for a chosen period of time -- much like WhatsApp's mute feature.

Called 'Pause All', the feature would switch off notifications for anywhere up to eight hours, Social Media Today reported on Wednesday.

"The option was spotted by social media expert Matt Navarra who initially spotted the same in testing last month. Given the amount of time we now spend on social media, it's good to have an option to shut it down completely every now and then," the report said.

The feature has so far been rolled out on iOS and the beta app on Android.

"Instagram is particularly well-known for driving obsessive behaviour among younger users. Being able to shut it off for periods will help people distance themselves from the online world," the report added.