Pocket-lint is supported by its readers. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more
Maggie Tillman, US contributing editor
· Updated ·
Explainer Provides context or background, definition and detail on a specific topic.
Why you can trust Pocket-lint
(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
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.
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
Thursday December 15, 2022 4:39 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 16.2 is now available for the iPhone 8 and newer following two months of beta testing. With last-minute additions like Apple Music Sing and Advanced Data Protection, the software update includes over a dozen new features and changes for the iPhone.
Below, we've recapped many of the new features available with iOS 16.2, including Apple's new whiteboard app Freeform, two new Lock Screen...
Thursday December 15, 2022 1:12 pm PST by Juli Clover
Back in July, Apple agreed to pay $50 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over the faulty butterfly keyboards that were used in MacBook machines between 2015 and 2019, and now emails about the settlement are going out to MacBook Pro owners eligible for a payment. Dear MacBook Owner, You are receiving this email because you previously reached out to our firm regarding your MacBook...
Thursday December 15, 2022 1:00 am PST by Hartley Charlton
Apple's AirPods Max launched two years ago today, but rumors about a successor remain thin on the ground, so what exactly can we expect from AirPods Max 2?
After months of rumors, the AirPods Max began arriving with customers two years ago today, but the device now seems to be showing its age, with the second-generation AirPods Pro adding a range of technological innovations that the.
..
Thursday December 15, 2022 5:59 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple is developing a 15.5-inch MacBook Air that could launch in the spring of 2023, according to display analyst Ross Young. In a tweet shared with super followers, Young said that production on panels designed for the MacBook Air will start in the first quarter of 2023. A 15.5-inch MacBook Air will be sized between the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, and it will be the largest MacBook...
Thursday December 15, 2022 7:00 am PST by Sami Fathi
In a new World Cup themed ad, Samsung has poked fun at Apple's lack of a flippable iPhone while promoting its own Galaxy Z Flip4.
In the ad posted on one of Samsung's Weibo accounts, Galaxy Flip phones can be seen as fans in a soccer stadium, themed after the 2022 World Cup. While the Galaxy Flip phones are cheering and flipping in the stands, a few smartphones, clearly resembling iPhones,.
..
Thursday December 15, 2022 10:13 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today seeded the first beta of upcoming iOS 16.3 and iPadOS 16.3 updates to public beta testers, providing the new software to the general public for the first time. The public betas come one day after Apple provided the beta to developers. Public beta testers who have signed up for Apple's free beta testing program can download the iOS 16.3 and iPadOS 16.3 betas over the air...
Saturday December 17, 2022 1:00 am PST by Hartley Charlton
After the introduction of the Mac Studio and Studio Display in Apple's product lineup, and with mixed signs of a larger Apple silicon iMac on its product roadmap, will there ever be another iMac Pro?
Five years ago this week Apple launched the iMac Pro – presented at the time as "the most powerful Mac ever made". In March 2021, Apple announced that it was discontinuing the iMac Pro.
By that...
Instagram decided to start the New Year 2018 on the wrong foot. The application has implemented a new feature that we are familiar with on WhatsApp, but did not expect to see on Instagram. More recently, the company introduced the "Network Status" (Last Active) option, which shows the exact time the user entered their page.
The last seen time appears in the Instagram messages section (also known as Instagram Direct) just below the name of friends or contacts you've chatted with recently. Don't think that the connection time that is displayed there refers to the last entry into the messages section - it actually shows the time of the last visit to Instagram (we checked). nine0003
Many users call this feature an invasion of privacy, but fortunately it can be easily turned off. Just keep in mind, if you don't want your friends to see the last seen time on Instagram and you choose to disable this feature, you won't be able to see other users' last seen times either (same as on WhatsApp).
Now that you know how to turn on and turn off time on Instagram, share your thoughts - do you think it's better to turn off "Online Status" to avoid interpersonal conflict? Let us know what you think of it in the comments!
LOVE more0003
Root Samsung
More than a year ago, a new option appeared in the Instagram application - Last Active. It allows you to track the status of the user: online or not, how many minutes ago the user was last in the feed. Such a “trick” migrated here from the Viber and WhatsApp messengers. It has been practiced quite successfully there for a long time. nine0003
“But what about developer-respected privacy?” - you ask. Everything is fine. On Instagram, you can hide the time of your visit from prying eyes. It is very easy to do, read our article and find out everything.
If you want to know when a person last accessed the Insta application, then you need to open the direct (paper plane icon) and tap on any dialogue. In it, under the user's nickname, you can notice a gray inscription, for example, "Was online 58 minutes ago." This is the status we are interested in. It only appears in the Direct tab. nine0003
You must have noticed that some of them have no inscription. This means that the person decided to hide it from their followers.
And how exactly he did it, we will understand below.
Interesting. If the user is online, then a small green circle appears next to his profile picture.
0145
Go to the appropriate section of the article and repeat the steps from the instructions.
So, to hide the time of your visit on an Android smartphone, you need to perform the following algorithm of actions:
Done. After all these manipulations, the inscription "Online" should disappear from your direct.
Good to know. The remote network status is not activated until you enable it yourself in the settings. nine0003
You can delete your online information on Instagram for iOS in the same way:
It's easy to see if you succeeded. If this option is enabled, then in the settings it lights up in blue, if not, it is gray. nine0003
Keep in mind that once you hide the visit time, you will no longer see when your friends last visited the feed. Everything is honest.
If you "sit" on Instagram through a mobile browser, it doesn't matter. Removing online visibility is just as easy. Do this:
That's it, it's almost impossible to track you now.
0003
