Meta originally focused on developing Instagram as a mobile app.

Thankfully, that’s changed as the company has added features to Instagram’s desktop site to make it work more like an app.

And fortunately, you can at least use the website to toggle your Activity Status.

How to appear Invisible on Instagram’s desktop site:

1. Click your profile picture in the top right corner

2. Select Settings

3. Click Privacy and security

4. Toggle the Show activity status box off

That’s all there is to that.

Once you toggle the Activity Status box off from that menu, your online status and history are essentially invisible to everyone.

Remember, you also can’t see other users’ Activity Status if you’ve toggled this option off.

And if you ever change your mind, you can follow the same steps to return and turn your Activity Status back on again.

Tons of people like to browse Instagram to keep up with friends or their favorite creators.

But you don’t have to let everyone know that you’re online when you’re browsing the platform.

Instagram’s Activity Status lets you choose when you want people to see that you’re online.

Of course, it also means that you won’t be able to see other users’ Activity Status with yours turned off. But that’s a small price for extra privacy on the platform.

You can change your Activity Status on Instagram regularly.

So get familiar with this process and start browsing Instagram on or offline. The choice is always yours.

Are you keeping this feature turned on? Carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• When did Instagram come out?
• Who’s the most followed person on Instagram?
• Can you see who views your Instagram Stories?
• How to unlink Facebook and Instagram

Related TopicsAndroidappsHow ToInstagramiOSmobieNewsSocial

How to Hide Your Instagram Online Status

Most social media networks and chat platforms these days include a feature that shows when a user was last online or last active on the service, which can be either helpful or a hindrance, depending on your personal or business situation.

WhatsApp includes an optional "Last Seen" status for the person you're chatting with in a conversation thread, while Instagram tells you how long it was since a user was active when you're viewing messages from them in your Direct inbox. Instagram also shows a green dot next to their profile picture and name if the person is currently interacting with the app.

Sometimes though, for whatever reason, you might not want someone – or indeed anyone – to know when you were last active on social media. Fortunately, WhatsApp and Instagram both allow you to hide your activity status in the app. Here our focus is on how to hide your Instagram status, but you can find how to do the same thing in WhatsApp in our dedicated how-to article.

Hiding Your Instagram Online Status

1. Launch the Instagram app.
2. Tap the profile icon in the bottom-right corner.
3. Tap the three lines in the top-right corner.
4. Tap Settings.
   
   
5. Tap Privacy.
6. Tap Activity Status.
7. Tap the switch to toggle off Show activity status.
   

Did you know you can also hide Like and View counts on Instagram posts, too? Check out our dedicated tutorial to learn how.

Tag: Instagram

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How to find inactive Instagram followers (and delete them)

Content:

Finding and deleting inactive followers on Instagram is important if you want to get a good level of engagement. If your engagement rate is low, you may have a lot of inactive or ghost followers on Instagram.

If you don't delete consistently inactive followers on Instagram, your engagement rate will start to decline as your followers increase. nine0003

This will negatively affect your account.

However, it can be quite difficult to find inactive subscribers.

Therefore, this article will tell you how to easily find inactive followers on Instagram, how to remove them, and more.

What are inactive followers on Instagram?

So what are inactive or ghost followers on Instagram?

Inactive Instagram followers, also known as ghost followers, are followers who don't like or comment on your posts. nine0003

Inactive/ghost followers on Instagram are followers that are not participating in your posts. These are the type of followers you want to get rid of.

In other words, inactive followers are following you, but they are not interacting with your posts.

Most of these followers are bots that use a follow/unfollow strategy to increase their following.

If you don't know what a subscribe/unsubscribe strategy is, it is essentially the act of subscribing to a group of users with the intent that they subscribe in return. nine0003

However, some of these inactive subscribers are real people.

In any case, it's a good idea to find and remove these followers, as it will benefit your account.

It is always better to remove a subscriber than to have an inactive one.

This is because even if you lose a subscriber, your engagement rate will be maintained or even increased.

Engagement rate is the most important metric on Instagram.

In order for brands to work with you, your account must have at least 1000 followers and a decent level of engagement.

Likes are therefore an important factor in determining the quality of your account.

After all, the more inactive or ghost followers you have, the lower your engagement rate.

How to find inactive followers on Instagram

There are two different types of inactive Instagram followers.

Bots and real people that are inactive.

To find inactive followers on Instagram, you need to be able to detect bots in your followers list and people who are inactive or no longer using Instagram.

You need to remove two types of Instagram followers. Bots and real people who are either inactive or no longer using Instagram.

Bots can be easily identified on Instagram.

This is what a bot account looks like:

• No profile picture
• Almost no messages
• Publications are little involved
• Not many followers

This is the number of factors to consider when identifying a bot.

However, you need to study each person carefully.

This is because there may be real people who have all these factors, but bots do not. nine0003

So do not rush to conclusions.

Real people vs. bots

When you look at these bot followers, you need to keep the end goal in mind.

It's all about getting people interested in your content.

So if you're looking at your list of followers and you think someone might be a real person, but don't think they'll participate in your content, you should delete them. nine0003

How to find and delete real but inactive people

Now that I've talked about how to find bots, how can you find real people who are just inactive subscribers?

How do you identify these people?

You can find real but inactive people by looking at people who are constantly liking or commenting on your content.

If you know that you have followers who don't like or comment on your posts, you can find inactive people. nine0003

Alternatively, you can use Instagram's "Least Engagement With" feature to see who you interact with the least, which means that person might not have been involved with your posts as well.

Since this feature is fairly new to Instagram, you can use it to unfollow people without blocking the activity. nine0003

This feature is Instagram's way of telling you to unfollow these people based on the fact that you don't interact with them much.

Use a third party application

Simply search for "Instagram Analytics / Followers / Unfollowers" in the App Store or Google Play Store.

However, viewing your inactive or ghost followers is usually a premium feature on these apps. nine0003

So, to see these followers, you have to be willing to spend some money.

However, if you use these applications, never unfollow or delete subscribers in the application itself.

Otherwise your account will be blocked.

This is because Instagram may detect that you are using a third-party app because you may be able to complete actions faster than usual.

Instead of unfollowing/unfollowing people from the app itself, do it manually. nine0003

How to Find Inactive Followers on Instagram: Next Steps

Now that you know how to find bot followers and inactive people, you have two options.

The first option is to continue interacting with these people by viewing, liking and commenting on their content.

However, you should only do this if you really like their content. Don't do it just for them to reciprocate.

This is because once people know you like their posts, they can respond in kind by liking your posts.

It's something like that.

In addition, you can remove these people from your list of subscribers.

Let's delve into this in the next section.

How to remove inactive Instagram followers?

There are several ways to remove inactive followers on Instagram .

Here are ways you can use to remove inactive Instagram followers.

1. Remove inactive subscribers from your subscriber list.

The first way to remove inactive or ghost followers is to remove them from your follower list or from their profile.

Instagram has released a new feature where you can directly delete people who don't follow you.

Not everyone has this feature, but if you do, it's incredibly useful. nine0003

You can remove subscribers by going to your subscriber list.

After you delete someone, they will no longer follow you.

They will not be notified that you have removed them as subscribers.

Also, they won't be able to see your new posts or stories unless they go to your profile and follow you again. nine0003

Second, you can remove someone from your subscriptions by going to their profile.

Then click on the icon with three dots in the right corner of the screen.

Finally, click Remove Subscriber to remove it as a subscriber.

Again, the person will not be notified that you removed them as a follower unless they visit your profile.

2. Block them

I don't recommend doing this, but if you don't have the ability to remove subscribers, you should block those users instead.

Here's how you can block users.

Just visit the user's profile and click on the three dots icon in the right corner of the screen.

After you block someone, they will be removed from following you, your account will be removed from following them, and they will not be able to find your account. nine0003

The person will not be notified that you have blocked them.

Why are inactive followers on Instagram bad?

If you have a bunch of inactive or ghost followers on Instagram, it can negatively impact your reach.

What happens is that you will interact less with your new messages as they are not shown to everyone.

For example, if you have a lot of inactive Instagram followers, Instagram will think your content is bad. nine0003

This is how the Instagram algorithm works.

Messages in your feed used to appear in chronological order.

However, messages are currently displayed based on how likely you are to use them.

This means that if you recently posted something and people don't show interest in it, Instagram will consider your content to be bad and not allow it to be shown to more people.

The Instagram algorithm works this way because they only want to show you the best content so you stay on the app. nine0003

Imagine that your feed is filled with poor quality images. You are more likely to exit the app and never come back.

However, if your channel contains great content, you tend to stay in the app for a longer period of time.

In some cases, low engagement doesn't mean your content is bad.

This simply means that you have a lot of inactive or ghost followers who are not interacting with your content. nine0003

Why is it important to delete inactive Instagram followers?

Inactive followers will drastically reduce the reach of your posts and the engagement rate of your posts.

It's important to remove inactive Instagram followers to maintain engagement.

As mentioned in previous sections, your engagement rate is the most important metric on Instagram.

Using an analogy, inactive subscribers are simply subscribers that are on your subscriber list and are not doing anything. nine0003

They don't like your posts and don't comment on them.

It is unfavorable if you like someone's posts for a very long time, but this person never replies.

This is the type of people you want to unfollow or remove as followers.

Thus, your engagement rate will either increase (if you get rid of a large number of inactive subscribers) or remain.

Why don't people interact with your posts?

Here is a list of reasons why people don't like your posts or why you get fewer likes on Instagram:

• They don't care about them
• You are disconnected
• They are not interested in your content
• Not enough time
• They have too many posts in their feed
• You are banned
• Your content is bad
nine0067 They don't use Instagram anymore
• You are using bad hashtags
• You are not participating in their messages

As you can see, there are many reasons why people don't interact with your posts.

It could be because they are no longer interested in your content, they are no longer using Instagram, you are not participating in their posts, and so on.

Otherwise, this may be due to the poor quality of your content. In this case, you will have to create better content. nine0003

Compare your posts with others. Is the quality of your content comparable to users who have millions of followers/likes?

If not, you need to rethink your content strategy or improve the quality of your content.

Conclusion

Removing inactive or ghost followers is critical if you want to maintain or increase engagement.

To find inactive followers on Instagram, you can either do it manually or use a third party app. nine0003

You can remove inactive subscribers using the "delete" function or by blocking them.

Engagement rate > subscribers.

After all, it's better to lose a few followers than to have low engagement.

Remember that inactive or ghost followers do not help your account - they only harm it.

How to claim an inactive Instagram username

Probably the most embarrassing moment is when you come up with a great Instagram username that fits 100% of your wants and needs, only to realize that it's already in use.

This is not strange, because the number of accounts in any social network is only growing every day, and unique and good-sounding usernames are already taken. Of course, you can use any username, but you must understand that a good and concise username can be one of the keys to success, so it should not be neglected. nine0003

So you've found that the username you want is already taken. If it is already being used by another active user, then there is almost no chance of getting it, especially if this user is popular. Of course, you can try to buy a username, but the price is likely to be too high and you simply cannot afford to pay such a price.

However, there is another option: an account with this nickname was once created, but is no longer used. In this case, your chances are greatly increased, and there are several ways that can help you get your desired Instagram username. nine0003

In this article, I provide a variety of ways to get the username you want, from the simplest (and cheapest) to ideas that can help you if you really need this username for a reason or for aesthetic reasons, but first queue for business.

This is actually the easiest way to get your desired Instagram username.

Of course, this is not the best way, because then you will not get the exact username you want, but consider whether you need it. nine0003

I'm not talking about using Instagram recommendations and entering numbers or additional letters after your desired username. I'm talking about more refined things.

For example, you have a brand that sells something and you want it to be featured on Instagram, but you don't have the resources or desire to spend the money and time to get your brand name specifically.

In this case, you can add the word "official" to the end of your username, or if your brand name is two words, you can simply add an underscore or period between them. nine0003

Of course, it does not look so aesthetically pleasing, but then you will not waste time on unnecessary actions and will be able to immediately start promoting your account.

There are many options for how you can change your username and still keep it recognizable. From the word "official" to dots, to an underscore in the middle of a username, front or back.

This may seem too simple, but I am a supporter of the idea that one should not spend resources where they can be saved. And in this case, this is one of the best ways to do it. nine0003

Instagram removes inactive accounts. This means that you can just sit back and wait, and perhaps (but there is no guarantee) your name will become free and you can use it for your needs.

Honestly, I don't like this method. If only because Instagram does not have a clear schedule for when inactive users will be deleted. Moreover, according to the information I could find, they are only deleted when Instagram decides to clean up its database. nine0003

Therefore, we can say that this is a random event, and in this case it all depends on your luck. Moreover, there is no guarantee that you will be the first to register such a username. Therefore, even if you wait, there is no guarantee that you will be rewarded for it.

In my opinion, this makes this approach not very successful. At a minimum, you will have to spend a lot of time every day keeping track of whether your account has been deleted. Therefore, I do not recommend this method, although, of course, it is up to you. nine0003

This method is much more complicated than the previous two, so it will only work for you if you really want to get this Instagram username for real business needs, and not just want to get a pretty username.

And so you need to register a trademark or patent. Then, when you receive confirmation that the word or combination belongs to you or your business, you can contact Instagram support and ask that you transfer rights to the username of an inactive account. nine0003

Many businesses go this route and succeed, but you should also check a few things as it can cause a lot of problems.

First of all, you need to make sure that such a trademark is not registered in another jurisdiction. Otherwise, you'll just get a counterclaim from the trademark owner, making your case much more difficult.

Secondly, remember that this is a rather long and expensive process, so double check if you really need it, as the resources spent may not be worth it. nine0003

If you decide to go this route, here is the Instagram form you should use to get a response.

This is the easiest way if you need the exact username.

And now, your account name is busy, but inactive. In such a case, it might just be a way for the account holder to make some money. There are even businesses where people track trends and sign up for accounts that might be in demand. nine0003

To get started, just write a private message, there is a chance that the owner will read your message and sell you an account.

But what if the owner doesn't read private messages? In this case, you can use other ways to contact him.

For example, Instagram has the ability to make your contact information public, such as your email or phone number. In this case, write an email or send a message to a phone number or messenger (for example, Viber or Whatsapp) with your offer. nine0003

If the e-mail and phone number are hidden, there is still a chance to contact the account owner. In this case, do the following:

• Use the Instagram Email finder to find the email that was used to create the account ).
• Check bio for contact information

It's easy. Here are a few tricks.

First of all, never start by saying that this particular account name is very important to you, as you will immediately increase the price of the Instagram account.

Secondly, if a similar account name is not registered in other social networks, then register it. This way the owner won't be able to use it anywhere other than Instagram, this will help to get a lower price for Instagram. nine0003

Third, describe a specific offer with a specific price. This will be the anchor price and the owner is more likely to trade based on it. However, don't try to drop the price too low, be reasonable and evaluate how much you are realistically willing to pay for this Instagram account.

To be honest, if you add an underscore or period, it won't hurt your business. So there is no point in trying to get exactly that account name, so be smart. Sometimes it's better to just change the name a bit, but save the effort and put it in a more productive direction. nine0003

The truth is that the username doesn't matter too much. You can be successful even if you don't get what you want, so if you're not going to get it, there's no point in getting hung up on it.

This usually happens in several cases, and the most common reason is that the account was frozen by Instagram but not deleted. In this case, when searching for a username, it will not be there, and you can create a new account with this name. However, you will not be able to log in, and when the account is unfrozen, your account will simply be deleted. nine0003

Many media outlets advise you to contact Instagram support or try logging in from a different device or browser, but neither will help you.

So in this case, you're just out of luck and unlikely to get that username. I tell it like it is and I'm not trying to give you false hope.

I had a situation with a friend of mine whose account was frozen and he tried to create another one with a similar username, but he couldn't login to the new account until his old one was unfrozen.

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