馃く Instagram is testing new iOS push notifications that include a profile photo. Each time the notification is shown on your screen, it triggers a GET request to fetch that image, letting Meta track every on-screen impression.
The app still misuses push notifications to send detailed device analytics about the device (uptime, battery, volume, locale, timezone, memory, CPU, etc.)
A GET request sent by Instagram when the notification was shown on screen.
Screenshot of the new push notification with a profile photo shown in Notification Center