How to Mute Someone on Instagram: Posts, Stories, Notes

Muting is for the account you want to keep following but see less of: a colleague who posts every hour, a relative's holiday stories, a friend's notes. Instagram's help page puts it in one line: if you don't want to see someone's posts in your feed, their stories at the top of your feed, or the messages they send you, you can mute them, and Instagram won't let them know.

The catch is that each mute covers one kind of content. Muting posts leaves the stories, muting stories leaves the posts, and none of them touches notes. The three tours below follow where each mute lives in the app. This guide is part of the Privacy and safety section of the blog.

Tour 1: the feed, for posts

When a post from someone you follow reaches your feed, the mute is two taps away in the post's own menu. Instagram offers two choices there: posts only, or posts and story together.

1. 1

   Open the post's menu

   Tap the three dots next to their post in your feed.

   In the appOptions
2. 2

   Hide, then mute

   Tap Hide, then tap Mute and their username.

   In the appHideMute [username]
3. 3

   Pick what to mute

   Choose Mute posts, or Mute posts and story to take both out of your feed.

   In the appMute postsMute posts and story

The same switches sit on their profile. Open the profile, tap Following under the profile details, then Mute, and turn on Posts, Stories or both. This route works when no post of theirs is in your feed at the moment.

Tour 2: the story bar

The row of round pictures at the top of the feed is the story bar. Muting a story there removes that person from the row and leaves everything else as it was.

1. 1

   Press and hold their picture

   At the top of your feed, tap and hold the profile picture of the person whose stories you want to mute.

2. 2

   Mute stories

   Select Mute, then tap Mute stories.

   In the appMuteMute stories

Tour 3: notes, in Messages

Notes are the short lines people pin above the chat list in Messages. They are the one place the other mutes do not reach: Instagram's help page says muting someone's messages, posts or stories does not apply to the notes they share.

1. 1

   Open Messages

   Tap Messages at the bottom of the screen.

   In the appMessages
2. 2

   Press and hold the note

   Tap and hold the note you no longer want to see.

3. 3

   Mute notes

   Tap Mute notes, then confirm.

   In the appMute notes

The chats themselves have a separate switch. Open the chat, tap the person's name at the top, tap Mute, and turn on Mute messages or Mute calls. The chat stays in your inbox; Instagram stops alerting you to it.

Can they tell you muted them?

Not from Instagram. Its muting page says Instagram won't let them know, and its notes page says people won't be notified when you mute their notes. Nothing changes on their side: you stay in their followers list, and your profile still shows that you follow them.

The two amber rows are where a mute can show indirectly. If you used to like every post and stop, a close friend may notice. And muting changes what reaches your feed, not how viewing works: open their story while signed in and you are on its viewer list like anyone else. The Instagram stalker guide explains what is recorded when you look at a profile or a story.

Mute, unfollow or restrict

Mute is one of three settings people reach for when an account gets too much. They do different jobs, and only one of them changes the relationship.

Restrict works on the other direction of traffic. Instagram's restrict page says a restricted person won't see when you're online or whether you've read their messages, their new comments on your posts are visible only to them unless you approve them, and your chat moves to Message Requests.

When an account goes further than that, Restrict vs Block on Instagram: What Each One Stops compares the two stronger settings, and Instagram Hacked: What to Do in the First Hour walks through the first steps if someone has taken over your account. How to Find Who Blocked Me on Instagram: A Checklist covers the signs that someone has blocked you.

How to unmute someone

A mute has no time limit; it stays until you turn it off. Most of the switches are on the person's profile.

1. 1

   Posts and stories

   Go to their profile, tap Following, then Mute, and turn off Posts or Stories.

   In the appTheir profileFollowingMute
2. 2

   Stories only

   Or tap their profile picture to open their stories, tap Options in the top right, then Unmute story.

   In the appOptionsUnmute story
3. 3

   Notes

   Go to their profile, tap Following, then Mute, and turn off Notes.

   In the appFollowingMuteNotes
4. 4

   Messages and calls

   Open the chat, tap their name, tap Mute, and turn off Mute messages or Mute calls.

   In the appMute messagesMute calls

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