How to see when someone is online on instagram


Here's how to See Who Is Online on Instagram

The Instagram app for iPhone has finally made it possible to see who all are online in one place itself. Whereas earlier, a greet dot used to appear next to the profile picture of a friend in the Direct inbox or in the friend list while sharing a post from your feed. Allowing users to quickly see who is online on Instagram is certainly is a great addition. This will help them easily find when their friends are online and available to chat. That said, there are certain restrictions that the platform imposes to protect users’ privacy.

Table of Contents

Can I see who’s online on Instagram?

You may or may not, depending on the situation. Here are a few things to note:

  • You can only see the online status of people who follow you or people who have sent you a direct message (DM).
  • One cannot know if someone is online on Instagram when they have turned off the activity status.
  • You can’t see when someone was last active or are currently active if your activity status is off.

Now let’s check how to view the list of people who are online on Instagram all in one place. You can do so from within the Instagram app and without using any third-party tools.

How to check who is online on Instagram

  1. Make sure you’re running the latest version of the Instagram app.
  2. Turn on your Activity status if it isn’t already. To do so, go to Settings > Privacy > Activity status and turn on ‘Show activity status’.
  3. Go to the Home tab and tap the ‘Messenger icon’ at the top-right corner.
  4. Tap the “Active” tab in the Direct Messages section.
  5. Here you can see all the people who are active now on Instagram.

NOTE: The above steps are applicable to the iPhone. Unfortunately, Instagram for Android currently doesn’t show the list of active users.

ALSO READ: How to turn off Message Requests on Instagram

How to know if someone is online on Instagram

Are you on Android or haven’t got the ‘Active’ feature yet in Instagram Messenger? Then follow the steps below to find when someone is online on Instagram.

  1. Go to the Search tab and search for the particular person’s name or username.
  2. Tap the name to view their profile.
  3. On the person’s profile page, tap the ‘Message’ button.
  4. Look for the online status at the top-left, right under the person’s profile name.
  5. If the status says ‘Active now’, it means that person is online right now.

Note that you won’t be able to see the online status if a certain individual has hidden their activity status.

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Can I see when someone was last active on Instagram?

Yes, you can easily check when a friend was last active on Instagram without messaging them. For this, the person must be following you and their activity status should be visible to others. Also, the user whose last active status you want to see shouldn’t have a private account.

To see the last time someone was active on Instagram, go to their profile and tap the ‘Message’ option. Now check the last active time under the follower’s name at the upper-left. The last active status should read something like “Active 1h ago”.

Last active status on Instagram

ALSO READ: How to check the time a message was sent on Instagram

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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.

Best iPhone apps 2022: The ultimate guide By Maggie Tillman ·

These are the absolute best iPhone apps available right now, from productivity apps to apps for traveling, reading, listening to music, and more.

Want to know more?

See our Instagram guides for more tips:

  • Instagram tips and tricks: How to master the app
  • 15 secret Instagram tips
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Writing by Maggie Tillman. Editing by Britta O'Boyle.

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how to see when a user was online and how to turn it off

The Instagram feature showing whether a user is currently online and when they last logged into the social network can be very useful. However, not everyone and not always wants to shine online or give out their visit to Instagram.

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♥ BY TOPIC: Instagram secrets: 20 tricks that every user of the service should know.

How to see when a user logged in (was online) on Instagram

Your favorite application has long ceased to be just a service for publishing and viewing photos and has turned into a real messenger. A prime example of this is Direct (private messaging), which has replaced other messaging apps for many users. In this regard, the developers have added a function to Direct, which is present in WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. Now in this section you can see when your interlocutors were online for the last time. For this:

Open your Instagram feed and click on the airplane icon in the top right corner or swipe from the right edge to the left. The Direct messenger will open, in which, under the user's login, the time of the last stay online on Instagram will be indicated.

However, as we have already said, this function is not always appropriate. Fortunately, it can be easily turned off.

♥ BY TOPIC: 20 extreme Instagram selfies (photos and videos) in places where it's easy to lose your life.

How to enable "invisibility" on Instagram and not show online status

It's very simple. Open the app and go to your profile. Tap the three horizontal lines icon in the top right corner and then go to Settings .

In the menu that opens, select "Privacy" and then - "Online Status" .

Enter the section and move switch "Show network status" to the "off" position and voila - no one else will be able to track your activity on Instagram .

However, keep in mind that in this case you will also not see the status of your interlocutors . Everything is fair.

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    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 (photo, video). 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 the time display is enabled for you, 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).


    Learn more