Like all social media, Instagram messages can occasionally become overwhelming, or you may get unwanted posts or simply get tired of interacting with a certain account yet you don’t want to unfollow the person.
This is where the Instagram muting feature comes in.
If you are wondering how to mute accounts on Instagram, here, in this article is the answer to your question.
I will go through simple and clear steps you can take to mute accounts on Instagram.
To mute an account on Instagram, simply access that account by clicking on the profile picture and under Following, select the Mute option to mute the person’s stories, posts, or both.
We are going to look at this in-depth but first, what exactly is the Instagram mute function?
The Instagram mute function
Instagram’s mute feature gives you control over the content you see and receive in your feed.
It enables you to mute unwanted posts from certain contacts, Instagram stories you are not interested in from particular accounts, and notes from particular accounts or users.
When you mute someone’s posts or stories, their content won’t show up in your feed or story bar, but you’ll still be following them.
How to mute an account on Instagram
Okay now that you have the basic details, let’s go through the steps for how to mute account on Instagram:
First, you need to access the Instagram profile of the person/account you want to mute;
Go to your Instagram application on your mobile phone; Android or iPhone and find the account you want to mute; you can find them by their posts and click on their profile picture to open their profile.
Alternatively, you can go to your Profile > Followers and open the profile of the person you want to mute.
On this person’s profile page, you will find a row just below their Bio, with items including ‘Following’.
Tap the “Following” button, this should give you a pop-up menu with options, select the Mute option.
This should give you another menu with three items – Posts, Stories, and Notes.
You can now toggle on the Posts switch if you want to mute posts by that user, or Stories if you want to mute the contact’s stories, or both!
Make sure that the switch of your mute option (posts or stories) turns blue to mute.
There, you have successfully muted that person, they will not get any notifications about your action, but you won’t have to see their posts or stories for as long as the mute stands.
Alternatively;
To mute a contact, you can open your Instagram app, and navigate through the stories row, this time tap and hold the user’s profile picture.
This will give you a slide-up menu from the bottom of your screen.
You have two items; View profile and Mute.
Also Read: How Long Does Instagram Suspend Your Account?
If you tap the view profile, you will get to the user’s page, Now you can follow through the steps above to mute.
If you tap the mute option, you will get a pop-up menu with three items, tap mute story to mute the person’s stories, or you can tap mute story and posts to mute both the contact’s posts and stories.
You can also tap cancel in case you decide you do not want to go through with the mute option.
What happens when you mute an Instagram account
Okay, so you have decided to mute that annoying, nagging, or unpleasant account, What next, you might be wondering?
- The muted account owner will not get a ‘muted’ notification, so they will not know that you muted them. If you were worried about them knowing, no need.
- The person’s profile picture will still show in your stories row, but it will be inactive (blurred).
The contact does not disappear as a result of the mute action, but it can show on your screen that it is muted because it turns blurry. - You can still see the stories and posts if you want to, by visiting the person’s page.
Any time you feel like checking them out, you can access their posts or stories directly from their page, though you do not get notifications. - You will still get notifications of comments or posts in which you are tagged. Should the muted person post and tag you, Instagram will alert you about the post or comment.
- You can unmute the account when you want to, to get posts back in your feed.
Or if you feel that you have rested enough from the constant posts and stories, or when you have sorted out whatever reasons you have to mute the account, you can choose to unmute it and have things return to normal.
The person will still not know about the unmute action.
Also Read: How To Change Account Type On Instagram
FAQ
Q. How can I limit interactions with a user on Instagram?
So you have some active friends or family or exes that you feel you need to tame a little. Instagram offers a “restrict” function which can help you limit interaction with some users.
To restrict a user;
Open the Instagram app on your iPhone or Android,
Choose the contact with whom you wish to limit interaction,
On the profile page, tap on Following to get a menu.
Tap on restrict from the menu. When prompted, still tap on the restrict account.
Q. How can I block a user on Instagram?
To block an unwanted or unpleasant user on Instagram;
Go to your Instagram app, navigate through and tap on the profile picture of the contact you want to block, this will display their profile page.
On the profile page, tap on the three-dot icon at the top right for a menu
Tap block from the menu.
You will be prompted to confirm that you want to block the contact, tap block again.
You can always unblock when you choose to.
Conclusion
While you may not have control over what other people share or how many times they share on Instagram, you have the freedom to choose to rest from all the nagging, showing off, or endless sharing.
Fortunately, Instagram offers a mute function to help you with this, and you can follow the easy steps seen above to mute posts and stories, or both from unpleasant users.
