Facebook is releasing a new tool to limit how much time people spend on its apps. The announcement follows concerns that excessive social media use can have a negative impact on mental health.

The updates are called “Your Time on Facebook” and “Your Activity.” Soon, users will be able to set daily time limits and temporarily pause push notifications, while a new dashboard displaying your use and time spent will become active.

In a new blog post, Facebook director of research David Ginsberg and Instagram product management director Ameet Ranadive wrote: “We developed these tools based on collaboration and inspiration from leading mental health experts and organizations, academics, our own extensive research, and feedback from our community.”

But some people say it doesn't go far enough.

"I wouldn't say it's a radical change or that it's going to really change a lot about the way that most people use Facebook or Instagram," Grant Blank, from the Oxford Internet Institute, tells Newsbeat.

"It strikes me as a way to balance their corporate interest of keeping people spending as much time as possible on Facebook, while still being responsive to people who find the continual notifications to be disturbing or distracting."

The new features are expected to roll out within the next few weeks. To activate on Instagram, you can find the “Your Activity” options in the settings menu by tapping the gear icon on your profile. For Facebook, users can tap the menu option (comprising three horizontal lines) and scroll to find “Your Time on Facebook.”

News of the rollout follows an earlier report in May, which said Instagram would be including features to allow users to monitor their usage.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 02, 2018 02:22 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).