Instagram Testing 'Main Account' Feature to Link Multiple Accounts in Single Login: Report

Instagram is reportedly working on a new 'main account' feature that could enable advanced users to manage their multiple accounts using a single login. The users will have to make one account their 'main or primary account' and logging into that account will enable them to access all of their other accounts as well. This feature is a work in progress right now and its traces were found in the alpha version of Instagram. There is no word on when this feature will be launched in the stable version of the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app.

TechCrunch received this tip off from a tipster Ishan Agarwal, and the code found within an alpha version of Instagram explains, "Quickly and securely log in to all of your Instagram accounts with one ID and password. Make one of your accounts your main account and use it to log in to all of your other accounts at once . . . Your accounts will remain separate but logging in will be fast and simple . . . Anyone who has the password for your main account will have access to the accounts connected to it."

The report further notes that the main account feature will let users link one account as the primary account and the rest can be linked to this account. Logging into the main or primary account will automatically enable user's access to the rest of the accounts as well. Once all of this is set up, the users will then only need to remember a single email/username and password combination. This would enable advanced users in easy switching and managing multiple accounts on Instagram.

The TechCrunch report adds that the account linking feature could expand functionalities in the future by letting users register on third party apps using Instagram and bring their identity or profile info to other apps similar to Facebook Login.

Facebook had recently revealed that it plans to combine its three messaging platforms - Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp Messenger, and Instagram - but the merged entity won't be released until at least 2020. The company CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims that one of the major reasons why Facebook wants to move forward with the integration is to make end-to-end encryption default in more of the company's products.