Close Friends Story

Submission 8,559

Part of a series on Instagram. [View Related Entries]

About

A Close Friends Story, also referred to as a person's Close Friends List, is a feature that started on Facebook but was popularized more notably on Instagram when it rolled out to all users in November 2018. The feature allowed Instagrammers to curate a list of "close friends" that can access a hidden Story post exclusive to them. Memes and tweets about the feature usually center on what it means to be added to someone's close friends list as well as what people put on their close friends Story over their regular Story.

History

As early as January 2018, the feature rolled out to a select number of global Instagram users as is evident via a tweet from verified Twitter^[1] user @MattNavarra, posted on January 27th, 2018.

The feature was made available to all users in November 2018. Tech news outlet Wired^[2] published an article on November 30th, titled "Instagram Now Lets You Share Pics With Just 'Close Friends'." It detailed how the new feature gave users the ability to post photos and stories only visible to a tight circle of followers. Wired also stated that through the beta tests run over the course of 2018, Instagram discovered that users liked to limit their audience more in Stories than in their main posts.

Overall, the feature aimed at discourse surrounding intimacy, not only on Instagram but on social media in general. It's also important to note that the feature launched only after Instagram was acquired by Facebook, a platform that already had a pre-cursor "Close Friends" feature as early as March 2014.^[3]

Buzz surrounding the close friends feature on Instagram slowly started in January 2018. Twitter^[4] user @nicolearcher was the first on the platform to mention it via a tweet posted on January 10th, 2018. The tweet (shown below) made a joke about a close friends story being all of one's followers except "your mum or aunts." It received only 3 likes after being posted.

Although the feature was Instagram's, in the beginning, most memes related to the topic came from Twitter. Users like @arianaistoocute^[5] posted tweets in February 2018, weighing what it meant to be added to someone's close friends story as well as what it meant to be removed from one.

The aforementioned sentiment started to become clearer going into the remainder of 2018. For instance, the first tweet about Instagram's close friends list that received viral attention was posted by Twitter^[6] user @spukichu92 on July 30th, 2018. The tweet (shown below) used a reaction image of contentment to demonstrate how it felt to be added to someone's close friends. It received roughly 8,400 likes over three years.

Once the feature was on every user's phone in November 2018, tweets started appearing in more abundance. For instance, notable Twitter^[7] comedian @CaucasianJames was one of the first to reference close friends in a meme context. His tweet (shown below) received roughly 4,500 likes when posted on December 18th, 2018.

Stereotypes and tropes surrounding close friends started to cement themselves going into 2019 and 2020. Twitter^[8] users like @walkercapl posted tweets in 2020. Their tweet (shown below, left) was posted on May 23rd, 2020, and received roughly 298,900 likes over one year. Another Twitter^[9] user, @cowboij, posted a tweet on February 29th, 2020, that attached an alleged screenshot of Kylie Jenner's close friends story which was just a picture of an egg. Her tweet (shown below, right) received roughly 199,600 likes over one year. It was also reposted to Instagram^[10] in March 2020, being one of the first image macro memes on the platform to reference the feature.

In September 2021, close friends stories gained traction as a reference on TikTok. The first TikToker to do so was @jakekrantz1^[11] who posted a "Close Friends" video on September 2nd (shown below, left). The TikTok imagined what it would be like to be added to a teacher's close friends story. It amassed roughly 8.4 million plays and 1.5 million likes over the course of three months. @jakekrantz1 uploaded a follow-up TikTok^[12] on September 23rd, 2021, (shown below, right) that also received a lot of attention, roughly 6.3 million plays and 1.3 million likes over three months.