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by Collette Reitz
Carl Court/Getty Images News/Getty Images
To help you keep up with your followers, Instagram recently released a feature that lets your friends know when you're active on the app. While I am a big fan of receiving hilarious memes from my friends on Instagram, I don't think they need to know my every single move on the app. Of course, it can be helpful if you want to make sure that your BFF sees your message right away, but what about those times when you simply want to scroll in peace? Read on to learn how to hide your activity status on Instagram.
On Thursday, July 19, Instagram announced its new feature, which displays a green dot next to your Instagram handle to indicate to your friends that you are currently active on the app, but you can easily switch it off to stay on the down-low. The feature appears in your Direct inbox next to friends who show up in a list when you send a post from the Instagram Feed, per the blog post on the Instagram website. The only friends who will see your activity status are those accounts that you follow back or anyone you've talked with in Direct.
Even so, you might want to turn off your activity status for a little more privacy.
It's super simple to hide your activity status from your pals on the 'Gram, per Lifehacker. First, you need to go to your Instagram profile. Then, tap on the three lines on the top right corner of the app. Next, tap onSettings. Then, you can scroll down to the Privacy section and tap on "Activity Status." Finally, toggle off the button that says "Show Activity Status” and your whereabouts on Instagram will no longer be public.
InstagramIt's important to note when you turn off your own activity status that you will also no longer be able to see the activity status of other Instagram accounts.
That doesn't mean your besties won't get your Direct Messages right away, but you won't be able to know if they're currently active on the app.
Thankfully, being aware of the activity status of your friends on Instagram isn't the only way to know if they open your message right away. If you do want to make sure you see all of your Direct Messages as soon as they're sent from your favorite meme-sharing BFF, you can enable notifications for Instagram Direct.
To make sure that you get an alert when you have a new message in your Direct inbox, you can enable the notifications in your Settings. Once you're in Settings, scroll down to the “Notifications” section. From there, you can control which features you get immediate notifications for by tapping on “Direct Messages.”
From there, you can open the message immediately or whenever you want to. Since there's no option yet to only make your activity status available to select people on the 'Gram, you may simply want to turn it off altogether to maintain some privacy.
Thankfully, it's so easy to do, and you can always turn it back on if you want to. No matter what your activity status is, you'll always be able to receive Direct Messages, so you can keep sending all the hilarious memes your Instagram besties can handle.
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Maggie Tillman, US contributing editor
· Updated ·
Explainer Provides context or background, definition and detail on a specific topic.
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(Pocket-lint) - Instagram offers a number of similarities 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.
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.
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.
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.
There are a few ways to see when someone's online or active:
Note: Recent activity status will show as: Active 25m ago, Active yesterday, Seen, Typing, etc.
See our Instagram guides for more tips:
Writing by Maggie Tillman.
Sections Instagram Apps
Instagram is one of the most extensive platforms for maintaining personal pages and promoting businesses of various directions. The social network has the ability to maintain public and private accounts. Each of them offers significant advantages and some disadvantages, so it is important to know how to make your Instagram account private. By default, the created page remains open, but if necessary, you can restrict access through special settings. nine0003
A private Instagram account means hiding everything that happens in the profile from unauthorized users. Publications, live broadcasts, subscriptions and subscribers will be available to a limited circle of people, the application of which will be approved by the owner. In this case, all users will be able to send a request for correspondence.
In a private profile, you need to approve each incoming subscription request manually.
How to anonymously view stories on Instagram. nine0003
- More subscribers come to a private Instagram profile (intrigue is created and unsubscribed users want to know what kind of information is published on the page).
- Fewer unsubscribes (when you click on the "Unsubscribe" button, this window is displayed, which makes subscribers change their mind).
- Control who has access to published information (a valuable feature for personal pages - only approved subscribers can see posts). nine0003
- Posts, even those tagged with hashtags, don't show up in the Instagram search engine.
- Likes on private page posts are not displayed in the "Subscriptions" section (they are visible only to the one who liked and to the one who was liked)
- Publications do not fall into the "Recommendations" (many users come from this section who increase the number of views, likes, reposts).
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- Additional spending on advertising and long promotion of a business account (users learn about the profile through a recommendation or come from paid advertising from other pages).
- Inability to view statistics (data is available only for open accounts).
Having an open account, you can share information with all users of the social network. Live broadcasts, publications and all activity on them will be available to everyone. Also, in open Instagram accounts, you can see not only the total number of subscribers and subscriptions, but also see who these users are. Non-private profiles are suitable for public people, businessmen and simple bloggers who like to share their own pictures, videos and other information online. nine0003
- Fully accessible information (a plus for those who don't like to subscribe to private profiles).
- Posts are included in the "Recommendations" of Instagram.
— Hashtags are actively working and bringing in new subscribers.
- Posts with the most activity become available to more users.
- There is no need to manually confirm each application.
- There is no way to hide personal information.
- There is a high possibility of stealing photos and videos from the page by intruders.
- No control over new subscribers.
An Instagram business page is created to promote a brand or service. Targeted advertising is configured in accounts, which speeds up profile promotion and increases activity in it, including due to unsubscribed users. Also available in the business account are visit statistics and a report on each publication (the total number of likes, comments, saves and reposts). A business account cannot be private. It is possible to transfer it to personal (losing the ability to see the statistics) and only then make it private.
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To create a private Instagram profile, follow the instructions:
1. Enter this menu in the upper right corner to search for settings (this is how it looks after the update in 2021).
2. Next, click the "Settings" icon
3. Select "Account Privacy".
4. Drag the slider to the Closed Account field.
Hide your posts and stories from prying eyes.
Your profile on Instagram probably contains more personal information about you than any other page on the social network. The number of people following your stories and posts can be really intimidating.
If you still decide to use Instagram, then you can't hide from the eyes of Facebook, but you can try from curious strangers.
Hiding your private life on Instagram is easy enough: change the profile type to closed .
However, there are a number of additional options to help you stay private. You can even keep your account open by tweaking your profile settings a bit.
Sit back and get ready to explore useful options in your Instagram privacy settings.
Surely the first thing that comes to mind. A closed account is the easiest way make your profile private . Be sure that after changing the page type, no one else will be able to view your posts and stories. Of course, if you do not allow it to be done.
Once your account is closed, users who visit your page for the first time will only see your name and profile picture. They will also be able to submit a request to follow you. Only after you confirm this request, new followers will see your photos, videos and stories. nine0003
To make your account private:
Click on the gear at the very bottom to open the settings. An important point: anyone who is already following you at the moment you change your account type to private will still be able to follow you. This means that if you want to block access to information about you to a certain person, you need to remove him from your list of subscribers. nine0003
To remove a specific person from your followers:
Instagram allows you to limit the number of people who can see your stories, and also prevent users from sharing them with others.
To hide your stories from specific people:
You can also prevent people from sharing your stories with others:
Alternatively, you can use Instagram's " Close Friends " feature to allow only specific people to view your story:
When you want to hide photos and videos posted on your page, you have to act more drastically than in the case of stories.
If you don't want to make your account private, you can block individual users:
Note : You can also restrict access to a specific user in the same menu. If you do this, they will still be able to view your posts and photos, but the person's comments will only be visible to you.
Moreover, the chat with this user will be moved to chat requests, so he will not be able to understand if you have read his message.
There are several ways to make your account harder to find.
First, you can prevent your phone from sharing contacts with Instagram. Usually, the application asks you to provide access to the phone book to help you find friends when you sign up for a social network. However, this also means that Instagram knows what numbers your contacts have.
To prevent Instagram from viewing your phone book:
You can also prevent Instagram from recommending your account to other users . This often happens if a person monitors the emergence of new users on a social network. Instagram recommends accounts that are similar to each other or have a large number of joint followings.
This feature cannot be disabled in the mobile app. To do this:
Finally, it's worth checking if one of your posts can be found in Google search. Instagram does not allow Google to show your photos by default, but if you've ever logged in to sites using the credentials of the page of this social network, it may be quite easy to find information about you on the Internet. nine0003
If one or more of your posts do show up in searches, you need to prevent third-party apps from accessing your account. You can do this by opening the mobile app:
You can also prevent other users from following your activity on Instagram.
Turn off your online status so people can't see when you're online. Keep in mind that if you turn off this feature, you yourself will not be able to see when other users are online.
You can view your tagged photos and videos before they appear on your profile. If you have a public account, checking and verifying each tag will prevent spammers from attacking your profile. If you have a private account, it will help save your reputation if one of your friends posts a provocative photo and tags you. To take control of photos you've been tagged in:
You may no longer want to save the photos and videos you post on Instagram (especially Stories).
There are several settings to help you do this:
If you also don't want to save published posts:
This will prevent photos and videos from being stored locally on your phone, their only copy will be on Instagram.
Your Instagram ads depend on the websites you visit and the apps you use. If you want to prevent personalized ads from showing, you will have to go to Facebook:
