Instagram is said to be in the process of testing a new 'favourites' feature with a select number of users. The favourites feature will act in a similar way to friends lists on Facebook and Twitter, but will offer some notable improvements upon both.

The Verge reports the feature will let Instagram users create a list of other users they consider to be their closest friends on the photo sharing social network. There's no limit to the number of other users one can add, but Instagram reckons most lists will have between 10 - 30 users.

Instagram is thought to be developing the feature in response to users trying to create their own friends lists, which have been labelled "Finstagrams". Users would create private Instagram accounts, which are intended to be followed by a limited number of people, and once followers have liked a photo, it will be deleted. Because of the way Instagram works, it wasn't long before these 'private' account ended up being followed by hundreds of people.

With favourites, when you create a post, you'll have the option to share it with your favourites list. If you do, only those followers in the favourites list will be able to see it, and it will be denoted by a green badge. A new favourites tab will appear on a user's profile, and only followers in the favourites list will be able to see posts.

Anyone not on the list will be able to click on the tab, but won't see any posts.Users can't request to be added to a favourites list, and won't be notified when they're added or removed.

Robby Stein, product lead at Instagram said: "People are trying to hack Instagram to create smaller audiences, and we're trying to recognise that",

"We really want to get this right".

"The best version of Instagram is one where you feel closer to the people you are connected with because you're on Instagram together",

"Even if you live all over the world, you feel like you're with them. That's something we want to drive as the core focus of the product".