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How to not see stories on instagram


How To Mute Someone’s Instagram Stories Without Them Knowing

Life

by Mia Mercado

Carl Court/Getty Images News/Getty Images

We’ve all got that friend who insists on posting the entirety of the concert they’re attending. Their Instagram story looks like this: ---------------. Each story as equally blurry, dark, and blown-out by them loudly singing along as the last. (This comes from a place of zero judgment. We’ve all been that friend.) If you’re wondering how to mute someone’s Instagram stories, so you don’t have to tap through or swipe past, you are in luck. The Instagram gods/programmers have given you an out.

Muting someone’s stories is pretty simple. Here it is in bullet points to make it even easier:

  1. First, you’ll need to see their story pop up at the top of your feed.
  2. Now, tap and hold down their profile picture. You doing it? Good.
  3. Then, you’ll be prompted with two options: Mute and View Profile. Select Mute > Mute Story.
  4. Voila! Their stories are muted. Now, continue scrolling and double-tapping without the temptation or distraction of that person’s story.

If you’ve made a muting mistake or you know your friend is no longer posting indistinguishable concert stories, you can unmute someone’s stories the exact same way. Repeat the steps above, and when you get to step three, you’ll select “unmute” instead of “mute.” Easy peasy.

screenshot via Instagram

(For the record, I would never Mute the Lisa Frank Instagram account. It is a sparkly and nostalgic treasure.)

“Stories you've muted will appear at the end of the bar at the top of feed, and won't have a colorful ring around them when they're updated,” a post on Instagram’s help page states. However, “muted stories won't automatically play when you watch stories.” So, you’ll still know they’re posting stories; they just won’t automatically play.

“Muting someone's story is different from unfollowing them,” Instagram’s post clarifies, “and you'll still see their posts in feed.” You’ll see any posts they chose to make in the grid. Those will appear in your feed as per usual. You just won’t be privy to their stories.

If your big question is does someone know if I’ve muted their Instagram stories? The answer is no. They may notice your username isn’t among the handles of people who’ve viewed your story, but they won’t get any kind of notification that they’ve been muted.

Let’s say you want to hide your Instagram story from certain people. You can do that too. Here are some helpful bullet points on that:

  1. Go to your profile and tap the three horizontal lines in the upper corner. This is also known as the “hamburger” despite its obvious lack of condiments.
  2. Then, tap Settings.
  3. Now, you’ll select Privacy > Story.
  4. Here next to “Hide Story From” you’ll be able to tap the number of people you want to, as the tab suggests, hide your story from.
  5. Now, select the people you want to hide your story from. Bye, Aunt Deb who doesn’t need to see me doing karaoke. Later, Kid I Babysat For In High School Who I Begrudgingly Let Follow Me.
  6. Finally, tap Done. You are now free to post bonkers-level stories without the judging eyes of Aunt Deb.

“Keep in mind that hiding your story from someone is different from blocking them,” Instagram states. It also “doesn't prevent them from seeing your profile and posts.”

Zackary Drucker/The Gender Spectrum Collection

Instagram first added the mute feature back in May 2018. “Mute can make your feed even more personalized to what matters to you,” an Instagram spokesperson said to CNBC. “We’ve also heard it may be a useful tool for managing complex social dynamics.” “Complex social dynamics” is the kind way to say “I don’t want to see every second of your beach trip, David.”

Let’s say you want to fully mute someone. They’re going to vacation to Cabo and you know don’t want to subject yourself to the FOMO. When you see a post from the person you want to mute, tap the three dots that are next to their account handle. Then, select “Mute” and hit “confirm.” You can also choose to mute but posts and stories if your FOMO is through the roof.

Again, no one will know if they've been muted. So, you're free to unshackle yourself from the FOMO as your please.

How To Unsee Instagram Story In Two Ways: Works In 2022

To unsee an Instagram story that you accidentally viewed, deactivate your Instagram account for 48 hours. Since an Instagram story will only last for 24 hours, once this period ends, they won’t be able to see who viewed their story.

Ever since the Instagram Stories feature was launched, I have come up with a few tricks which will let you hide Instagram Story seen from another user’s story. The way I mentioned above is only one of them.

You can use these methods to view someone’s Instagram story and without notifying them on the Instagram website, Android, and iPhone. Moreover, it is possible to watch the stories of people without even following them but that is of course only possible for public accounts.

In case you have already accidentally viewed someone’s story on the Instagram app and looking to delete or undo your seen action from the viewer’s list then also we’ve got you covered. We will start with the same here.

Contents

  • 1 Delete Or Undo Seen From Instagram Story Or Direct Messages (Video)
  • 2 Turn Off Your Internet Connection
  • 3 FAQs
    • 3.1 Can you unsee someone's Instagram story?
    • 3.2 Can you look at someone's Instagram story without them knowing?
    • 3.3 Can someone see that I viewed their Instagram story if we are not friends?
  • 4 How To See Someone’s Story On Instagram Without Them Knowing – Wrapping Up

Delete Or Undo Seen From Instagram Story Or Direct Messages (Video)

At times, it happens we view stories by mistake and at the same time, we don’t want the owner to know. The good news is that you can hide your view. Whether the profile whose story you have viewed is private or public the process to remove your seen remains the same. Here’s how.

The steps are the same and applicable to both Android and iOS devices.

Here are the step-by-step instructions.

  1. Open the Instagram app and go to the profile of the user whose story you viewed
  2. Now, tap on the 3 dots at the top right and select Block
  1. Confirm your decision by selecting Block.
    Blocking the owner of the story will remove your view from their story and also delete the DM conversation with them. But there’s a catch.
  2. Wait for 24 hours… or forever.
    As soon as you unblock that particular user, your view will come back and appear again in the story viewers list. So, to counter this keep that person blocked until their story(photo/video) expires which you viewed. This means the maximum time you need to wait before unblocking them is 24 hours.
    In case you want to unsee a DM then you’ll have to keep them blocked. As once you unblock them the conversation will be back and they will be able to see the “Seen” or the read receipt.
  3. Unblock the user (for Stories only).
    To unblock someone, go to your profile and tap on the Hamburger menu icon at the top right and select Settings.

Next, tap on Privacy and security and select Blocked Users/Accounts.

Now, select that specific user. This will take you to their profile. Tap on 3 dots at top right on their profile and select Unblock. Confirm the same on the next pop-up box.

  1. Follow the user again if you still want to follow them.

After that story has expired, you will have to follow them (if you were following them earlier) again as blocking someone removes them from your following.

Another thing you should know is that blocking someone will make them unfollow you (if they were following you earlier). So, you stand a risk of losing a follower in case they don’t follow you afterward.

Don’t Miss: How To Add Temperature In Instagram Story

Here is another useful tutorial for Instagram stories: Add Multiple Photos Or Longer Videos To Instagram Stories. And if you want to unsee an Instagram DM, read about how to read Instagram messages without being seen.

Turn Off Your Internet Connection

One of the best ways to view someone’s Instagram story without them knowing is to do it with your internet off. When you do this, it doesn’t register on Instagram that you’ve viewed the story because you viewed it while offline. 

Here’s how to see someone’s story on Instagram without them knowing, by turning off your internet connection:

  1. Open the Instagram app and allow it to load, you want to be sure that the person’s story you want to view is showing in your app, so it loads.
  2. Once you’ve done that, turn off your internet connection.
    You can do this by tapping the Wi-Fi icon in your settings. If you’re using data, turn off your data connection. On the off chance you have both turned on, you can put your device on airplane mode to turn off all connections.
  3. After you’ve turned off your internet connection, go back to Instagram and view the story you want.
  4. Once you’ve viewed the story, you’ve got to stay off of Instagram until the story times out, so when you go back online, Instagram doesn’t retroactively register your view. Stories last for 24 hours, however, if you viewed it a while after it was posted, say 17 hours after it was posted (like the story in my screenshot above), you have to wait another 7 hours until it times out before you can go back on Instagram. 

FAQs

Can you unsee someone's Instagram story?

You can unsee someone’s Instagram story by deactivating your Instagram account for 48 hours. It works because Instagram stories “live” only for 24h.

Can you look at someone's Instagram story without them knowing?

You can view someone’s Instagram story without them knowing. One way you can do this is by using the Story Saver app on Android. It allows you to view the person’s Instagram story without their knowledge, and you can save it too.

Can someone see that I viewed their Instagram story if we are not friends?

If you view someone’s story on Instagram, they can see that you viewed their story even if you are not friends on the platform. It works both ways, if someone views your story, you can see that they viewed it even if you’re not friends, or they don’t follow you.

How To See Someone’s Story On Instagram Without Them Knowing – Wrapping Up

How’d you like this article?

I know that sometimes a situation can arise where you need to view Instagram stories privately, and I hope this guide helped you learn how to do just that. Whether you want to view someone’s story without them knowing or “unsee” a story when you accidentally viewed someone’s, I wanted to create a guide to solve these exact problems. 

If you’re looking for more Instagram tutorials, here’s how to unblock someone on Instagram and how to hide comments when you’re watching an Instagram live. 

Thank you again for reading, be sure to comment your thoughts below and share this article with your family and friends!

How to stop seeing someone on your Instagram feed without unfollowing them

This Instagram guide was prompted by a question from a friend who asked me if you could stop seeing someone on your Instagram feed without unfollowing them. They saw a ton of updates in their feed from this person but didn't want to unfollow them because there would inevitably be repercussions. So is there a solution?

Stop seeing someone on your Instagram feed

You can stop seeing someone on your Instagram feed, but it takes a little effort. If you don't want to block them, you'll have to manually disable their story in your feed every time it appears. It's not perfect, but it's the only way I know of to stop their stories.

  1. Select one of their stories you want to get rid of in your Instagram feed.
  2. Press and hold the image until the menu appears.
  3. Select "Disable USERNAME History".

This will only delete this single story and you will have to repeat this for every one that appears. Far from ideal, but aside from using a third party app, it's the only way I know of to manage things.

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Do not let anyone see your stories in your Instagram feed

If you don't want to encourage a person to include you in their Instagram life story, you can choose not to have your own stories appear on their Instagram feed.

  1. Go to the person's profile and select the menu icon with three dots.
  2. Select Hide your history.
  3. Confirm if requested.

This should stop your story from showing up in that person's feed. As with turning off stories above, you will need to do this for every story you post online.

Case to block or unsubscribe

Somehow, social media is so ingrained in our psyches that unsubscribing is considered as serious as telling a real friend that you never want to see them again. It could actually be a best friend, but it could also be someone on the other side of the country that you've never met and are unlikely to meet.

Social networks are not real life. This is a pretend life where everyone is desperately trying to be cool and trying to convince subscribers that their life is much more interesting than it really is.

While this has undoubtedly changed our way of life for the better, it has also distorted our view of relationships and the world around us. Instead of valuing our real friends, we count followers or retweets. Instead of spending time with people who mean something to us, we sit next to them in a coffee shop, silently staring at our phones in our own little world. How is this a good way to maintain a relationship?

I would say that culling social media followers is a good thing. Being as selective with your social network as you can be in real life will greatly benefit you. You'll have more time for those who matter, you'll have more energy to engage constructively with those you choose, and you'll be able to use social media with the same freedom that was originally intended to be given.

Spread too much and you won't have enough value to do justice to those who matter. Choose who you are friends with on social media as well as in real life, and you will have more time and energy for those people who are most likely to enrich your life.

I have collected all my social media accounts and feel much better. Have you tried it? Would you try? Tell us about your experience below!

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Is it possible to hide stories on Instagram and how to do it

Every year, Instagram introduces features that make life easier for its users. One of them is customizing the display of stories. With its help, you can easily control which users can view your stories, as well as hide from the feed the stories of those whose content you are not interested in.

How to hide your Instagram stories

How to hide other people's stories on Instagram

Frequently asked questions

How to hide your stories on Instagram

There are 3 ways to limit the viewing of your Instagram stories: close them for certain followers; hide from users who are not subscribed to you; Broadcast stories only to selected people on your Close Friends list. Depending on the goals, brands and bloggers choose the method that suits them. For example, they are used during contests/draws or during closed sales (for example, only for subscribers or loyalty card holders). Also, the restriction on viewing stories is applied when the account is both personal and work, so as not to broadcast moments from life to the entire audience, but only to a narrow circle of friends.

Hide stories from the user does not mean blocking him. In addition to stories and live broadcasts, he will see your other content (posts in the feed, Reels), and will also be able to comment on publications and write to you in Direct.

Method 1. How to restrict viewing stories for some subscribers

In the Instagram app, go to Settings ― Privacy ― History. In the "Watching" section, select "Hide history from". In the list, mark the subscribers from whom you want to hide your stories, and click "Done". You can change the choice (add or remove a person from the list) at any time. If a user has unsubscribed from you, the settings for restricting viewing for him will be saved.

Method 2. How to hide stories on Instagram for those who do not follow you

To hide stories from a person who is not your subscriber, go to his profile and click on the three dots in the upper right corner. Select Hide My History. Now this user will not be able to view any of your stories. To remove restrictions, also click on the three dots and select "Show my story again."

Method 3: Show stories only to a select list of people

The Close Friends list makes it easy to separate public and private content. To customize the list, go to the settings menu and select Close Friends. In the search, find and mark users (you can add both subscribers and those who are not subscribed to you) and click "Finish". Now select "Close Friends" when posting a story. After publication, such stories will be marked with a green circle, and only users from the list will see them. You can edit the list at any time.

How to hide other people's stories on Instagram

You may need to hide other people's stories in your feed if their content is uninteresting or distracting to you. For example, you are subscribed to some expert, but he publishes the content you need only in posts, and broadcasts his personal life in stories. Since this content is not interesting for you, you can hide its stories.

Go to the account of the person whose stories you want to hide, and in the profile header, click on the "You are subscribed" button. Select "Hide" and turn on the toggle switch opposite "History". Now his stories will not be shown in your feed. The person whose stories you have hidden will never know about it. To see his stories again, turn off the toggle switch.

If you have many accounts where stories were hidden and you can't remember them all, you can find them in a separate list. To do this, go to Settings - Privacy - Hidden Accounts.

Frequently asked questions about hidden Instagram stories

How do I know if another person has hidden their stories from me?

Unfortunately, there is no 100% way to determine this, since Instagram does not notify that someone has hidden their stories from you. You can ask friends or log in under a different account and see if the user has published stories. If you see them under another account, but not under your own, stories have been hidden from you. But if a user publishes stories only for the "Close friends" list, it is impossible to find out about this and view these stories.

Is it possible to hide already published stories from the user?

Yes, to do this, go to your stories and click "More" at the bottom. Select "History settings" - "Hide history from" and mark the desired user.

Can I watch someone else's stories anonymously?

Yes, there are several ways to hide your view of someone else's stories. More detailed in the article. Also, these methods will be relevant if you have limited access to viewing stories.

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