5 Instagram Privacy Settings That You Should Know

Quick Tips

• You can disable your Activity Status by going to Settings > Messages and story replies > Show activity status > Turn it off.
• Hide your Instagram Story and disable the option of resharing them.
• Clear your Instagram search history by going to Settings > Account Center > Your information and permissions > Clear Search History.

Basic Ways

• Make your profile private: Go to Settings > Account Privacy and enable Private Profile. This will make your posts visible only to your followers.
• Remove someone from your followers: You can remove specific users following your account. Tap on Followers and select Remove.
• Block comments on your posts: This also prevents unwanted comments from trolls or bots on your posts.

Method 1: Disable Activity Status

Activity Status shows the other person whether you are active on Instagram. You can choose to hide it from your profile. Hiding Activity Status will also disable the typing indicator in the chat window.

Step 1: Open Instagram > tap on your profile icon > tap the hamburger menu icon at the top-right corner.

Step 2: Select Messages and story replies. Then, tap on Show activity status.

Step 3: Tap the toggle to disable Activity Status.

Method 2: Turn off Direct Messages (DMs)

If you want to stop all communications, turn off Direct Messaging for your Instagram profile.

Step 1: Open Instagram > tap on your profile icon > tap on the hamburger menu icon at the top-right corner.

Step 2: Tap on Messages and story replies > select Message controls > choose who can send your Direct Messages on Instagram.

Method 3: Hide Your Instagram Story

If you post something on your Instagram Story that you want to hide from specific users, here’s how:

Step 1: Tap the hamburger menu icon at the top-right corner of your profile page > select Hide story and live.

Step 2: Tap on Hide story and live from and choose from your followers who should not see your stories.

Step 3: Go back and tap on Sharing and remixes. Disable the toggle for Allow story sharing in messages.

Method 4: Approve Tagged Posts

When someone not following your account tags you in their post, you receive a notification for the request to approve the same. And you can choose not to. Here’s how:

Step 1: Tap the hamburger menu icon on your profile page and select Tags and mentions.

Step 2: Enable the toggle for Manually approve tags. You will now always be notified to approve tagging requests from other users on Instagram.

Method 5: Clear Search History

Your search history shows your interest and also curates the Discover feed for your profile. You can choose to clear it for your profile.

Step 1: Tap the hamburger menu icon > select Account Centre.

Step 2: Tap on Your information and permissions > tap on Search history.

Step 3: Select Clear all searches.