Instagram is mistakenly calling your friends AI in a new glitch plaguing users

What you need to know

• Android Central's Namerah Saud-Fatmi reported issues with Instagram, as the app won't let her send messages to friends because they're an "AI chat."
• The people she follows and follow her back do not appear when attempting to send Reels and more.
• Users on Reddit have started reporting the same issue today (July 25); however, another user states they've had this problem for the past two days.

Instagram is suffering from a strange glitch today (July 25), as users report the inability to message their friends for the strangest reason.

On Friday afternoon, Android Central's Namerah Saud-Fatmi encountered a weird glitch while trying to message contacts on Instagram. According to her report, the app delivered the following "error" message: "AI chats aren't available to everyone yet." Saud-Fatmi confirmed that the people she is trying to message are followed by her, and they follow her back; however, these contacts don't appear as they should when looking to "share posts or reels."

Additionally, her report states, "trying to message them from their profiles displays the above message." Uninstalling Instagram and reinstalling seemed to offer a brief respite.

This didn't last long, as her report states the glitches returned "soon after."

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Others report the same

Instagram labeled my friends as AI??? Now they do up normally in my chat but when I try to send them any reel I can't coz they don't show up even if I search there names, it wasn't like this couple hours ago. from r/Instagram

Namerah did a little more research and discovered a growing thread on Instagram's subreddit, where users have started reporting the same problem. Strangely, the original poster (OP) states that Instagram has started labeling their friends as "AI." Much like our own internal report, the OP on Reddit states they are also unable to send their friends any reels because "they don't show up even if I search their names."

These issues plaguing Instagram users seem to have started within the past few hours. At the time of writing, the thread is roughly five hours old, and our internal report was given within the past hour, at around 1 pm ET.

One user chimed in on the Reddit discussion, stating they've encountered the same problem and have had to resort to copying "the link of reels and send it directly to my friends." What's more strange is that one user reports having this problem for the past two days.

Android Central has reached out to Meta about this issue that Instagram users are facing. We will update this article when we hear back.