In instagram how to see who is online
How To Know If Someone Is Online On Instagram
Even though Instagram is mainly known for sharing photos and videos, we all message our friends there too and a lot of us wonder how to know if someone is online on Instagram.
Specially when we don’t get responses to our messages.
Fortunately, Instagram now has an “online” feature like its siblings Facebook and Whatsapp.
So, if you are looking for a way to see if your friends or crush is online on Instagram we listed here a few ways to find out.
Table of Contents
How To Know If Someone Is Online On Instagram
To know if someone is online on Instagram you can open your DM’s with the user and at the top of your screen, under their username you will see “Active Now”, and a green dot in their profile image as well as in the camera icon.
Also, if the user was active a few hours ago, you will see it there too.
This is how you can see if someone is online on Instagram
Another way to find out if someone is online on Instagram is to check all your active contacts in the Messages section.
Here, if you have “Activity Status” enabled, you will be able to see at the top all the users active at that moment.
See all Active Now contacts on the Messages screen
How To See When Someone Was Last Active On Instagram?
Same as Active Now, to know when someone was last active you and the other user will have to have enabled “Activity Status” on their profiles. If you both do, you can find out when they were active on the DM screen under their username.
Also, in the Messages screen, you will be able to see under your contacts username, when it was that they were last active.
This of course, will only work for those who don’t have their status hidden.
Can You See If Someone Is Online On Instagram?
If you and the other user have “Activity Status” enabled on their profiles you can find out if someone is online on Instagram by going to their DM’s and see “Active Now” under their username or they can also appear in the top bar in your Messages screen.
When you or the user have the “Activity Status” disabled then you will have to try other alternatives. Below we will show you how else you can check.
Then you can decide whether you are going to use any of those features to check and confirm whether someone is online on Instagram or not.
How To See If Someone Is Online On Instagram If They Appear Offline
1. DM Them And Watch Out For ‘seen’ Message
A quick way to know if someone is online when they have their “Active Status” off is to DM them and see if they read your text.
Active Status doesn’t hide the “seen” notice when you read a message, hence if someone disables this option you can still tell if they checked out what you sent them.
As an advice to make this even more helpful, try to be a bit mysterious with your message, don’t send them a simply “heyyy”. If they are avoiding you – or everyone – a hey message won’t bring them back to the app.
Share them a cool meme and don’t say anything else.
Send the a text with an “OMG!! you won’t believe what just happened…” or similar. Etc. You get the idea. Make them want to open your DM.
Once you have done that, watch out for the “seen” message under the text you sent. This way, even if they have their Activity Status off you can see they are online (even if they don’t reply to you).
2. Look For Them In Facebook
You may think about searching for the “last seen” status of someone on Instagram but if that person has added you on Facebook, you can use this same feature to check the last seen status there.
Most people tend to switch from Instagram to Facebook and vice versa when they are browsing social media, but don’t always turn off this setting everywhere. There is a chance they didn’t turn it off on Facebook.
So, if someone logs into their Facebook account, you will be able to get that tracked through the Last Seen status on Facebook.
If you have the messenger app installed on your phone, you will be able to use this feature to locate if someone is online on Facebook or not.
You can launch the messenger app, and then move to the second tab on the bottom.
If you are not active on messenger, you will need to make yourself active before you can look for the active status of another person. Then you can scroll through your friends and see if that person is active or not. People who are active on Facebook or message will be displayed here along with green colored ticks.
This is not a 100% accurate method available for you to check and verify if someone is online on Facebook. However, we can recommend you use this feature and check whether someone is active on Instagram or not based on assumption.
3. Check If The User Has Liked A Recent Post
You can also check if the person you are stalking – lol – on has liked a post recently. There are multiple methods available for you to check this. For example, you will be able to go through the follower list of the person.
Then you can browse through the recently uploaded posts in those follower accounts and see if theuser has liked any of those posts.
Keep in mind that doing this is not always accurate. When you are going through this process, you will have to deal with numerous challenges.
For example, you will not be able to see the posts on Instagram private or muted accounts. On the other hand, you will have to go through the profiles individually one by one. This is going to consume a considerable amount of time from you as well.
The quickest way will be to check out the close friends accounts or the famous influencers the person follows, so you don’t have to go through the whole following list.
Something that could have worked perfectly for this is the – nor removed – Following Activity Tab, which made this option really easy to follow to find out if someone was active but it was removed back in 2019.
Hence, you should keep that as the last option to check if someone is online on Instagram or not.
4. Use DM Activity Status
As discuss above, to access this feature, you will need to log into the Instagram account.
Then you will need to go to the profile of the person where you want to see the DM activity status.
On the profile of the other person, you should click on the “Message” button. Then you can get into the conversation.
On the conversation, you can inspect the top bar containing the username, where you can see activity status. For example, if the other Instagram user is online, you will be able to see a small green colored dot, located next to the profile picture. If not, you will be able to see the last online status.
However, you cannot use this feature to check the last seen status of all the Instagram users. You will only be able to use this feature to locate the last seen status of people who follow you on Instagram.
Why Can’t I See When Someone Is Active On Instagram?
Instagram enables users to see when someone is active on the app through the “Active Now” feature in the app’s Direct Messaging section.
Here are some of the possible reasons for that:
1.
You are not following the user – For you to see when someone is active on Instagram, you must be following them. If you aren’t following the specific user, you won’t be able to see their activity status.
2. The person isn’t following you – If the user you’re trying to see the activity status of isn’t following you back, that also means that you can’t see their activity status.
3. You haven’t exchanged direct messages with the person – Keep in mind that the “Active Now” feature is only visible to users who follow one another and have exchanged direct messages. If you haven’t exchanged DMs with the person, you won’t be able to see their activity status.
4. The person has turned off their activity status – Other users prefer to turn off their activity status for some privacy reasons. If the person you’re trying to see the activity status of has turned off that feature, you won’t be able to see it.
If you want to turn your Activity status on the Instagram platform, just tap your profile picture in the bottom right.
Click on the top left, choose “Settings and privacy,” and scroll down to find “Messages and story replies.” Tap on that and click “Show activity status.” You can continue to use Instagram’s services if your active status is off.
5. Technical problems – Often, Instagram may encounter technical problems that stop users from seeing when someone is active on the platform. If you have ruled out the other potential reasons and still can’t see someone’s activity status, it may be a technical problem that you must report to Instagram’s customer support team.
Final Thoughts
Follow these methods and you will be able to see whether you are lucky enough to see the online status of a user on Instagram. Even if these methods don’t provide 100% positive results at all times, it doesn’t hurt to try them.
We are not sure whether Instagram will introduce any such feature to see the online status of another person in the future but in the meantime, you can try the tips above.
How To See Who Is Online on Instagram?
Connecting to different people across the world has truly never been easier. Especially after the pandemic, society has evolved to find many ways in which people connect to each other and stay in touch. One such platform that many people turn towards is Instagram.
Although Instagram was a popular social media platform even before the pandemic, its popularity has increased 10-fold after Facebook acquired it. With Facebook’s Messenger features being integrated into Instagram, today, users of the platform can see who is online, when was the last time they were online, and more. These features are particularly helpful because they allow all users to know when the other person is online and when a good time to talk would be.
In this article, we will see in detail how a user can see if someone is online or not on Instagram.
Table of Contents
- Method #1: Through Direct Messages on a Mobile Device
- Method #2: Through Message Inbox on PC
- Conclusion
- FAQs
Method #1: Through Direct Messages on a Mobile Device
Accessing direct messages on the Instagram app is one of the simplest and easiest ways to see if a person is online or not on Instagram at any given moment.
Let me take you through the steps to do this in detail:
- Open Instagram and Log in to your account.
- Tap on the direct messages icon in the top right corner or swipe left on your screen. This will give you access to all direct messages associated with your social media account.
- Here, you will see a list of all the people and pages that you have messaged directly in the past.
- Look out for the green light on the bottom right corner of each profile circle. If the green light is present, the person or page is currently online. There is also an activity status such as “Active 2 hours ago,” or “Active 12 minutes ago,” etc., under the name.
With these three easy steps, anyone can see if a person is online or not on Instagram via the mobile application.
Method #2: Through Message Inbox on PC
One can understand if a certain user is online or not by opening their chat on Instagram using the web browser or a mobile app.
By following the steps given below, one can easily see the activity status of a person on the web browser:
- Navigate to Instagram on your web browser and log in.
- Go to direct messages by clicking the direct messages button at the top right.
- You will see a list of all your conversations, and below the name of the concerned person, you will also see an activity status such as “Active 7 hours ago,” or “Active 24 minutes ago,” etc.
In this manner, one can easily check the activity status of a person on Instagram in the web browser.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is pretty easy to check the activity status of people on Instagram by following the steps detailed in the article above. Keep in mind that if a person has disabled their activity status, you can still find some clever tricks around the problem.
FAQs
Yes. Instagram does not discriminate between Private profiles or Business accounts and allows all users to check activity statuses.
Yes. You can turn off the activity status by clicking on Settings -> Privacy -> Activity status -> Show Active Status. However, it is important to note that when you do this, you will not be able to see the Activity Status of other users either.
How to find out if a person is online on Instagram in 2023 if there is no dialogue
Finding out if a person is online on Instagram, even if the person who is interested in him is not currently subscribed, may be necessary not only to satisfy idle curiosity. So, sometimes owners of business accounts, professional bloggers need to watch the online status of subscribers. After all, only in this way, taking into account the peculiarities of the social network, it is possible to understand at what time to make publications in the feed and Stories in order to be seen by the maximum number of people. It also allows you to more accurately determine when to start the broadcast in order to attract more viewers.
Content
- Check who is online on Instagram via direct or action subscribers are required for business profile holders in order to develop an account promotion strategy. But even for ordinary users, this feature can be very useful. For example, if you need to get an answer to a question that requires an immediate response. Or maybe you need to get a few people together to discuss in a group chat.
Read also: How to get into Instagram recommendations - 4 tips in 2023
If you can just go to the “Friends” tab in VK and see who is online now, then there is no such function in Instagram. However, determine who is online or offline is possible. They do this by tracking the marks left by users to their own and other people's publications or by seeing his nickname in the list of those who viewed Stories. True, in this case, you cannot vouch for the accuracy of the data - a person can exit the application immediately after he likes or writes a comment. And the Stories view counter does not display the time, and it will not work to understand when the user entered the Stories.
The second - more reliable way - appeared on Instagram after the developers added the "Direct" section to the application. In it, you can exchange personal messages or have a conversation in a group chat, make voice and video calls. And another useful feature that has long been expected from Instagram is the ability to track the online status of users.
Note!
To go to Direct, you need to swipe on the smartphone screen from right to left. The second way is to click on the circled lightning bolt icon on the top bar of the homepage. In a similar way, they go to the personal and in the web version of the application.
Through chats in Direct, you can not only see who is online at a particular moment, but also understand how long a friend has logged into the application and performed actions in it. True, the date of the last activity is shown only for those with whom you have already chatted - without a dialogue in Direct, this information cannot be viewed.
They act like this: - Find the username in the list.
- Look next to the signature - opposite it will indicate how many minutes, hours or days ago he was online.
Note!
If a chat exists, then even if the person is subsequently unfollowed or is no longer followed by the profile owner, the ability to see their network activity is preserved. Therefore, experienced users are advised not to delete the correspondence, even if the communication is no longer relevant.
How to hide your presence on the network
Users often ask why a person's activity is not visible, even if you know for sure that he is online now.
For example, he just posted a post in the feed or posted a new Story, he is broadcasting live, and the online status does not show in any way whether he was recently online. This happens if the user has a private profile for which there is no subscription. Also, the system does not show if he has hidden his online presence in the privacy settings. This feature is available to everyone. You can set it up both in the mobile application and in the browser version of Instagram.
On the phone
Most people prefer to access the application from their smartphone. You can turn off the ability to view your online status on Android and iOS mobile devices.
The algorithm of actions will be as follows:
- On the home page, click on your profile picture on the bottom panel.
- Go to profile. Tap on 3 horizontal lines in the upper right corner of the screen.
- In the "Settings" menu, select the "Privacy" section.
- Find the "Network Status" tab.
- Translate the slider opposite the "Show" line to an inactive position.
Note!
Disabling the ability to monitor network activity is mutual. A user who hides their online status will also not see if their friends are online or not.
On a computer
Those who access Instagram from a PC can also disable activity tracking in the browser version of the application.
To do this, do the following:
- Go to instagram.com. Authorize in the system.
- Click on their avatar on the top bar of the page.
- In the menu that opens, select "Settings".
- Clicking on the "Privacy and Security" tab.
- In the "Network status" section, uncheck the "Show" line.
You can now return to the home page by clicking on the house icon at the top of the screen. In this case, neither the friends to whom the user is subscribed, nor those with whom he is in correspondence, will be able to track his activity on the network.
The ability to know which of the subscribers is currently online allows you to choose the right time to post content or go on air when promoting your account. And if the user does not want his activity to be tracked, you can always turn off the display of online status in the privacy settings, but at the same time he will not be able to track when others are online.
How to see if a person is online or not on Instagram?
Contents:
- 1 How to find out who is online on Instagram?
- 2 Instructions on how to find out if a person is online or not
- 3 How to hide information when I was online?
- 3.1 Via phone
- 3.2 Via computer
- 3.3 Browser version
- 4 Questions from our readers
Most likely, the reason for this was the prohibition of Insta to watch whom your subscriptions liked. Now, in order to somehow track the activities of the accounts of interest, everyone rushed to check whether a person is online or not.
Well, for those who do not know how to do it, we have written instructions. How to find out who is online on Instagram?
People who are used to using services like VKontakte get used to just going to their friends list, clicking "Online" and seeing a list of people they can chat with now. About the same functionality, willy-nilly, you expect from Instagram, since there are private messages here too. But, alas, there is no such thing in the photo network. Want to chat? First decide with which person, and then follow the instructions that we have described below. If he is not online, then, alas, no luck.
Instructions on how to find out if a person is online or not
Although we cannot see who is currently using Instagram, information on specific people can still be useful. And you can get it as follows:
- Authorize.
- Open the newsfeed tab, it is hidden under the house icon.
- Swipe left to open direct. Also, messages open on the airplane icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
- Here, next to the dialog, the time when the person was online, or that he is active right now, will be written.
If you don't have a dialogue with a person, you won't be able to see when he came in. But, if there is a chat, even after the user sets up privacy and unsubscribes from you, you can still see if he is active.
How to hide information when I was online?
Of course, we can hide this information from users. And this functionality is available both on a mobile device and on a computer. Let's explore both options. And the browser version will be a bonus.
Via telephone
First of all, the social network was created for mobile devices. That is why we will consider this instruction in the first place. The algorithm of actions is as follows:
- Open the application.
- Go to your profile. To do this, click on the icon with a person in the lower right corner. Or, if you have several accounts connected, there will be an avatar of the active one.
- Click on the three horizontal lines at the top right of the screen.
- Click on "Settings". It is located at the very bottom of the screen.
- Opening privacy.
- Click on the "Network Status" button.
- Just make the switch inactive.
Via computer
If you are using an emulator, just do what I wrote above. Few people use the official Windows 10 app, but there are settings to match.
The instruction is as follows:
- Install the official application and log in.
- Go to your page by clicking on the icon with a little man at the bottom right.
- Here we need a button with a nut. It's next to Edit Profile.
- This window is divided into two vertical menus. We need the left. We scroll it up to three active switches, and translate it into the inactive position "Show network status".
Browser version
Despite all the limitations of the browser, many people continue to use it for Instagram. And in terms of visibility for other restrictions, the social network does not impose in this case.
Consider the algorithm of actions through the Internet browser:
- Go to the web version of Instagram and log in to your account.
- Click on your avatar in the upper right corner and go to your page.
- Click on the nut next to the "Edit Profile" button.
- Select "Privacy and Security".
- The second item will be the notorious "Network Status". We uncheck it.
That's it, now no one will know when you looked at Instagram. Well, how to see a person online or not is also clear. Just go to Direct and look at the numbers next to the dialogue. True, if you have not yet communicated in private messages with a person, then you will not see his activity either.
I'll have to write to him first. Questions from our readers
#1. I went to Instagram, I look, but it doesn’t show me who is online. I wanted to see when a person was online, it was empty .. and so with everyone, what should I do?
All users have either turned on the ban on viewing their status (which is unlikely), or this is a temporary bug from Instagram (most likely). We recommend that you wait a bit, if the problem persists - write to technical support.
#2. The green online indicator on Instagram has disappeared. What to do?
If the person is not online now, the green indicator will disappear, but the time when the person was online will appear next to the conversation. If the time of the last visit is not displayed, then the user has disabled "Online Status".
#3. Can I hide my status only from certain users?
Unfortunately not. Either all users see when you visited Instagram, or no one.
