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How to know when someone is active on instagram


How To Tell When Someone was Last Active on Instagram

Instagram is one of the few social networks that notifies people when you were last seen on the app. It also shows when you’re online, when you’re typing, and so on. You can see when your friends were last on Instagram and they can see when you were last there too. Depending on your security preferences, this may be a blessing or a drawback to the Instagram application.

There are several reasons you may want to see the ‘Last Active’ status on another person’s profile. It’s a feature that lets you know if someone is available for a message or likely to respond. If you’d like to claim an inactive Instagram username, this status can provide you much-needed insight into the account.

What is Last Active on Instagram?

‘Last active’ falls along the lines of read receipts for privacy and ease of communication. A built-in feature; users can have insight into other’s messaging and online activities.

With the ‘last active’ status, you can see what friends are online, when they were last online and see if they uploaded anything new.

Last Seen on Instagram

You can only see the last seen status on accounts of:

  • People who follow you
  • People who you’ve had direct messages with

If you don’t meet these criteria, you won’t be able to see when someone was last online.

The active status will show up in a few different ways. If you see a green dot next to their username and profile: they are online at that moment. You can also use the Instagram messaging service to get information for when an account or user was last online.

Only people you are following can see this data. It’s a small distinction but an important one as it allows a semblance of control over who sees what.

How to See ‘Last Seen’ on Instagram

To see other users’ last active status follow these instructions:

Open Instagram and select the paper airplane icon in the top right to access your Inbox.

Check beside each message thread to see when the person you messaged was last on Instagram.

This status isn’t in real-time but is updated every few minutes. So if it says someone was last online 6 minutes ago, it could be anything from 5 to 10 minutes, but the time given is close.

Turn off Last Seen in Instagram

If you’d like to hide your active status on Instagram you can. Those visiting your DMs or profile will be unable to see the key indicators we’ve discussed by turning your active status off.

This seems to be a mechanism to keep you from lurking and seeing what others are up to without having to reveal anything yourself. I think this is a fair system and encourages people to be as open as they can be while still offering the opportunity to be private when necessary.

To turn off Last Seen, do this:

Open Instagram and tap on the profile icon in the lower right-hand corner

Tap the three vertical lines in the top right-hand corner

Tap on ‘Settings’ then ‘Privacy’

Tap on the option labeled ‘Activity Status’

Toggle ‘Show Activity Status’ to off.

By doing this, you’ll also turn off your ability to see others’ last active status as well. If there’s someone, in particular, you’d rather hide this information from you can use Instagram’s blocking option.

Even if you’ve had direct messages in the past, they won’t be able to see your profile information including your last seen status.

Why Can’t I See Someone’s Last Active Status?

If you’ve previously communicated with or followed someone on Instagram, yet you aren’t able to see their last seen status, there may be a few reasons.

  • The person you’re interested in may not be following you – as we can only see the status for those who we’re following, the same applies to others.
  • You’ve never had a private conversation with them – If you’re not followed by someone and you’ve never had a DM conversation with them, you won’t be able to see this information.
  • They’ve turned their last active status off – Assuming you meet the above-listed criteria if you’re still unable to see their status, it’s likely because they have it turned off.
  • The user has blocked you – This one is simple to spot because you will no longer see their Instagram profile either.

Understanding the reason behind your inability to view the last seen status of an account will provide you insight into how to fix it. You can always ask the person you’re communicating with if they’ve turned the status off.

Some users have explained issues after updates. It’s not unheard of that bugs will affect this feature. If this is the case you can always wait it out or contact Instagram support.

Last Seen & Privacy

Some Instagram users are concerned about privacy while others enjoy the feature. The status does have some benefits.

First, Instagram only shows the last seen status to people you follow or direct message, and no one else. Your random followers won’t be able to see it unless you follow them back. If you don’t want individuals to see when you’re online, don’t follow them.

Second, it allays some of the anxiety that comes with social media. Namely that of the delayed response. There are a lot of Instagram users out there who will begin to panic or become angry if you don’t respond to a DM or messages within 30 seconds. Showing them that you haven’t been online since yesterday is the ideal way to avoid this awkwardness.

Third, if you use Instagram for business or promotion, responding quickly is important there too. Having it plain to see that you haven’t been online all day will help manage the expectations of anyone who wants to talk to you without causing them to think you’re ignoring them.

There is of course a case for letting out TMI by allowing Instagram to tell the people you follow when you were online. Compared to the information we willingly release about our whereabouts and activities on social networks and the fact you can control who sees it negates a lot of this. Plus, you can disable it whenever you want a little alone time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I tell if someone turned off their activity status?

Of course, it would be a privacy violation if Instagram told you someone turned off their activity status so the company has chosen not to notify other users when someone takes advantage of the option. If you’re curious about whether someone you’re following has theirs off all you need to do is send them a message.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eWhile it isn’t foolproof, if your friends’ status isn’t showing they’re online, go ahead and send them a message. If the ‘Seen’ option appears, they’re online. This is about the only way to know for sure if someone is unwilling to disclose their online activities.

How accurate is Instagram’s activity status?

Instagram’s activity status is similar to GPS and other online features that help you track other people’s activity. Meaning, it is flawed in a sense. For example, some users receive Snapchat’s u0022someone is typingu0022 notification when their friend has only opened the message. u003cbru003eu003cbru003eThe reason for these irregularities on Snapchat is because the app is designed to pick up on certain characteristics and behaviors that assume you’re online. So, a friend may have opened Instagram, then switched to another app or locked their phone and put it in their pocket which means they aren’t technically active on the app. u003cbru003eu003cbru003eOverall, the activity status on Instagram appears to be relatively accurate, but there is always room for error.

How to hide your Instagram activity or online status

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Maggie Tillman, US contributing editor

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(Pocket-lint) - Instagram offers a number of similiarities to other social media and chat platforms, including Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Features are constantly added, including options like "Show Activity Status".

If you use Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp - both owned by Facebook like Instagram - you'll know that they show when you're online and last active, or last seen in WhatsApp's case. Instagram does the same.

However, although the "Show Activity Status" option is enabled by default inside of Instagram's settings menu, you can toggle it off like you can on WhatsApp - something you can't do in Messenger.

Here's how to hide your activity status on Instagram, as well as how to tell if someone is online.

How to hide your Instagram activity or online status

Those of you who don't want people to see when you're online in real-time do have the option to turn off Instagram's Show Activity Status feature, though, if you do, you won't be able to see anyone else's activity.

To change the visibility of your activity status:

  1. Open Instagram.
  2. Tap on the Profile icon in the top right corner.
  3. Tap the three lines in the top right.
  4. Tap on Settings.
  5. Click on Privacy.
  6. Tap Activity Status.
  7. Tap the toggle next to Activity Status to turn off your activity status.

Note: Just like in Facebook Messenger, there's no option to disable read receipts on Instagram. Direct messages (DMs) always show as "seen" once recipients have opened them.

Who can see when you're active on Instagram?

Your followers can't see when you were most recently on Instagram. Only people you follow or have previously had direct conversations (DMs) with will see how many minutes or hours ago you were online.

This feature makes sense for Instagram users who rely on the service to chat with businesses or creative professionals and want to see whether they're online or even quickly respond.

How to tell if someone is online on Instagram

There are a few ways to see when someone's online or active:

  1. You'll see a green dot near their username and photo in your Direct inbox.
  2. You'll see a green dot near their username and photo elsewhere on Instagram.
  3. In your direct inbox, you'll see their most recent activity status.

Note: Recent activity status will show as: Active 25m ago, Active yesterday, Seen, Typing, etc.

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Want to know more?

See our Instagram guides for more tips:

  • Instagram tips and tricks: How to master the app
  • 15 secret Instagram tips
  • What is Instagram Stories and how does it work?

Writing by Maggie Tillman. Editing by Britta O'Boyle.

Sections Instagram Apps

How to find out when a person was on Instagram

Content

  • 1 An easy way to see the time of the last visit
  • 2 If the status of the last visit is not visible in Direct
  • 3 Look at the time of the last publication and other indirect signs

Instagram has already become a full-fledged messenger: there you can communicate with people by sending both text messages and media files (photos, videos). In the mobile application of the service, you can also see when an account was online (online) for the last time. However, this information is not located on the profile page, as is usually the case in social networks and instant messengers.

An easy way to see the time of the last visit

The main working method is to open a list of dialogs (section "Direct"). It's easy to do:

  1. Go to the news feed in the mobile application: click on the house icon on the panel below.
  2. Tap on the arrow on the top bar on the right. Or swipe your finger across the display from right to left.
  3. In the list of conversations, find a chat with the person whose information you want to see. Pay attention immediately to the profile photo in the list. If there is a green dot there, then the person is now online.
The time of the last visit is displayed in "Direct"

If there is no dot, look at the chat item as a whole: the line to the right of the photo should contain the status "I was online 13 minutes (for example) ago." If the person has not been online for a long time, it will say “Last activity 1 hour (for example) ago”.

If you have not previously corresponded with a person, naturally, you will not have a chat with him in Direct. In this case, send a message to the person. To go to a dialogue with him, open his profile and click on "Write". If a person answers you immediately or simply views the SMS (an eye icon will appear under it), then he is online.

Click on "Write" to open a chat with a person

Another point: to display the visit time, the chat must be active, that is, the user must write to you at least once.

If only you sent messages, such correspondence will not be considered active.

If the status of the last visit is not visible in Direct

In the settings of the mobile program, you can easily turn off the display of the time when you visited Instagram for the last time.

But in this case, you automatically lose the ability to track the visit time of other profiles. If you do not see visit times in all correspondence in Direct, go to settings:

  1. Open the page with your profile (where all your photos are located). Tap on the icon in the form of a hamburger - it's on the top right.
  2. Go to the settings - the item at the bottom left.
Run the block with settings

Open the block with privacy and security settings.

Tap on the item "Privacy and security"

Click on the item for online status.

Click on the "Network status" item

The switch should be blue - this means that it is active, and the time display function is enabled. If it is gray, click on the toggle switch and follow the steps from the previous instructions to see when you visited the "Insta" profile you are interested in.

Activate the time display and go to the "Direct" section again

If you have the time display enabled, but the status in the "Direct" is still not displayed, then the user himself decided to disable this option.

He will not see your visit time. Unfortunately, this limitation cannot be bypassed. It is necessary to respect the desire of people to hide certain data from strangers. The only thing is that you can collect indirect signs, which we will talk about later.

We look at the time of the last publication and other indirect signs

You can track the time of the last visit to another profile by several signs:

  1. By the date and time of the publication of the last post. Go to the person's profile and open the latest photo/video. Scroll down the post and look at the date and time. Of course, a person could have made a post a long time ago. In this case, the method does not work - you will not be able to find out when he entered after the publication of the last photo.
The time or date of publication is displayed under the post and comments to it

By the publication of the last story. If the person posted stories, open them through the news feed. Reach the last one - the time when the publication was posted should be displayed at the top.

Stories loading time is at the top - to the right of the profile name

By likes and subscriptions. Open the section with likes (heart icon on the bottom panel). Go to the first tab "Subscriptions". The feed will display all the recent actions (likes, comments, subscriptions to other profiles) of the people you follow, as well as the time when they performed these actions.

Explore the “Subscriptions” section to find the person you want to know about there. However, the method will work if neither you nor that person has the time display turned off in the settings. Plus, you should have an active correspondence with the profile (he should also answer you in the chat). If Direct turned out to be useless in your case, look for information about the user's actions on his profile page, in the likes section and in stories.

  • Author: Ekaterina Vasilyeva