One great feature of Instagram is that you can choose to make your profile either public or private – this is a great help for people who prefer keeping their privacy on the social media platform.
Moreover, with the updates in the Instagram algorithm, you can now choose to see what you like to see.
And along with this, you can also choose not to see the content by a certain person.
You might think we are talking about unfollowing people – but that’s not it.
Instagram has introduced a new feature that allows users to mute people they don’t want to unfollow but don’t want to see on their newsfeed or story section.
While this is a great way to screen your following list – this highly affects content creators and their overall reach.
And the worst part is that most people don’t know how to see who has muted them.
Hence, here are some tricks to help you determine if someone has muted you on Instagram.
What Is Muting Someone on Instagram and How To Do It?
Muting someone on Instagram is very different from unfollowing someone. When you unfollow someone, especially a private profile, you will not be able to see their content anymore.
When you visit their profile, it won’t show you any posts or stories by the user. Moreover, their messages will also reach your message requests.
However, muting someone on Instagram is very different. You can follow someone and still choose not to see their content on your newsfeed. But you can always view it when you visit their profile.
There are three types of muting on Instagram.
Muting Direct Messages
When someone mutes your direct messages, they will no longer get a notification when you message them – however, it will change nothing on your end.
Here is how you can do it:
- Open your Instagram inbox (tap on the icon on the top-right corner).
- Tap and hold on the person’s chat whose messages you want to mute.
- Select “Mute messages,” and you will no longer receive a notification from them.
Muting Stories
Muting someone’s story means it will no longer appear in your stories section. However, you can view them when you visit their profile.
Here is how it is done:
- Open the person’s story you want to mute.
- Find the three dots at the top-right corner and tap on them.
- Select the “Mute” option.
- On the pop-up, tap “Mute story,” and you will no longer see their stories.
Muting Posts
You can also mute someone’s Instagram posts you don’t want to see on your timeline; here is how:
- Find their post on your timeline and tap the three dots in the post’s top-right corner.
- Tap on “Hide,” and Instagram will hide their current post.
- It will also give you three other options, along with hiding the post. One of them will say “Mute [XX]” – you can mute the account like this.
How To Know if Someone Muted You on Instagram?
There is no direct way to know if someone has muted your profile – unfortunately, the application doesn’t share a notification for this.
Hence, we had to find indirect ways to determine if someone muted you on Instagram.
Method #1: Check Their Interaction With Your Content
When someone mutes you on Instagram, they will not be able to interact with you – not because Instagram restricts them but because your content will not directly reach them.
So if there is someone who was previously actively liking and commenting on your posts – but isn’t anymore, here’s what you can do to make sure:
Check if they have unfollowed you – if they haven’t, check if they are active on their Instagram. Sometimes people take a break from social media or just delete the application.
Moreover, to be more sure, see if they actively engage in other people’s content. You can verify this by asking a mutual friend or finding their likes and comments on their posts.
If everything checks out and you find out that a certain person is active on the application – but is just not interacting with your content, you can be sure they have most probably muted you.
Method #2: Check Their View on Your Stories
As discussed above, when someone mutes you on Instagram, they can no longer view your stories because your stories will not appear in their stories section.
So you can check your story views and see if they are present in your story viewers.
However, you will have to be very consistent with this and monitor this for a few days at least – because sometimes people get busy, miss your story, or just don’t use the application for a day or two.
Hence, if it remains a pattern and you don’t see their views on your stories, you can be sure they have muted you.
Method #3: Use the “Close Friends” Trick
Instagram allows users to restrict their stories from a certain audience by creating a close friends list who can see a certain story. Finding someone in your story’s views can be tricky, so you can use this option.
If you have an existing: close friends group, remove everyone from that group for the time being – and add just that one person you are doubting.
Now upload a story and keep checking your views to see if they have viewed your story.
Keep doing this for a few days just to be sure – if they do not view your story at all, you can be sure that they have definitely muted you on Instagram.
Conclusion
There is no direct and easy way to find out if someone has muted you on Instagram, but you can use these tricks to help you figure out the truth.
If you have doubts about someone, add them to your close friend’s story today and see if they are a true friend or just someone who doesn’t want to unfollow you but also doesn’t want to see you on their Instagram.
