Want to hide your Instagram followers? You’re not alone.
Sometimes, you might want extra privacy regarding who you follow. I completely understand that. You could follow competitor accounts for research or closely monitor celebrity gossip. Whatever your reason is, there might be times when you’d want to control who sees your Instagram followers list.
The good news is, there are ways to achieve this! In this comprehensive guide, I’ll walk you through the easy steps to hide your Instagram followers so you can take complete control of your privacy.
But before beginning, let’s examine Instagram’s privacy settings and the pros and cons of hiding followers. This information can help you make a well-informed decision about changing privacy settings.
Key Points
- Instagram offers privacy settings, such as private and public accounts, activity status, and interaction restrictions. These settings help users manage who can see and interact with their profiles.
- Three methods for hiding your Instagram followers are making your account private, removing specific followers, and using third-party apps.
- The benefits of hiding your Instagram followers include increased privacy, reduced pressure and anxiety, focus on content quality, and minimized influence of follower count.
- Using third-party apps to hide followers can be risky. Users should research these apps carefully to avoid compromising their account’s security.
Understanding Instagram Privacy Settings
Instagram provides you with several privacy settings so you can control who can see your profile and safeguard your data. Here’s an overview of all of them:
#1. Private and Public Accounts
Anyone, even those who do not use Instagram, can see a public account.
Instagram users can follow you and see your activity status and profile information. They can also like and comment on your posts, engage with other users on your timeline, share your posts as stories, and send you a direct message.
However, a private account is only accessible to users whose follow-request you have accepted. Your followers can only engage with you and view your posts, stories, reels, and videos.
#2. Activity Status
Instagram also offers the option to hide your last active status from your followers. The only catch is that you won’t be able to see others’ activity status if you turn off yours. Simply put, it’s a give-and-take relationship. If you don’t reveal your status, you can’t have a look at others’ status activities as well.
#3. Interaction Restrictions
You can use the restrict account option to limit your interaction with a follower without blocking or removing them. This will allow you to hide your online status. Their messages will directly shift from the Direct Messages inbox to the Message Requests inbox.
Hence, they cannot tell whether you’ve read their messages. Their comments on your posts will also be hidden automatically.
Essentially, you will not be able to receive any notifications about that account, even if they like, respond to, and repost your content. All their activity will stay hidden.
Navigating Through Instagram Privacy Settings
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to access and navigate these settings:
- Launching Instagram: Open the Instagram app on your smartphone. Make sure you’re signed into your profile.
- To access your profile and adjust your account settings, tap on the icon or your username at the bottom right of the screen.
- To access account settings, tap the three lines at the top right corner to reveal the menu. From there, choose “Settings.”
- Finding the ‘Followers’ option: In the settings menu, navigate to the “Settings” choice. Selecting this will display different settings categories, such as “Account,” “Privacy,” and “Security.”
- Adjusting ‘Followers’ visibility: Under the “Privacy” section, look for the ‘Followers’ option. Here, you can modify settings to manage the visibility of your followers list. Select “Followers” to make changes.
How to Hide My Followers on Instagram?
There is no direct way to hide all of your followers on Instagram. However, there are three ways to hide your followers to some extent.
Let’s have a look at them.
Method 1: Make Your Account Private
The easiest way to hide your followers on Instagram is to make your account private. Only your approved followers can see your posts, stories, and follower list when your account is private. Here’s how to make your account private:
1. Open the Instagram app and visit your profile.
2. Tap the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner of the screen.
3. Scroll up and tap “Account privacy.”
4. Under “Account Privacy,” toggle the “Private Account” option.
Once your account is private, anyone who wants to follow you must send a follow-up request, which you can approve or deny.
Method 2: Remove Users from Your Followers List
You make your account private, and new users cannot see your follower list.
But what if some users already follow you, and you don’t want them to see your followers? The previous trick won’t work on them, as they already follow you.
In this case, you need to remove them from your profile. Once you do this, the user will no longer have access to your profile, provided you’ve made your account private. They must send you a follow-up request again if they wish to access your account.
To remove users from your followers,
1. Open your Instagram profile. Open the followers list.
2. Find the user and tap the ‘Remove’ button before them.
3. Tap ‘Remove’ again.
Method 3: Use a Third-Party App
You can use a third-party app to hide your followers without making your account private. There are several apps available that claim to help you hide your followers. Still, it’s essential to be cautious when using these apps, as they may violate Instagram’s terms of service or compromise your account’s security.
Here are a few popular third-party apps that offer follower-hiding features:
- FollowMeter: This app allows you to hide your follower list and see who unfollowed you.
- Followers Pro: This app allows you to hide your followers, track new followers, and see who doesn’t follow you back.
- InstaFollow: This app offers features like hiding your followers, tracking unfollowers, and managing your following list.
Is It Safe to Use Third-Party Apps to Hide My Followers?
Using third-party apps to hide your followers can be risky, as some apps may compromise your account’s security or violate Instagram’s terms of service. Always research an app thoroughly and read its privacy policy before granting it access to your account.
Protect Your Privacy: If you’re concerned about your privacy while using Instagram or third-party apps, consider implementing a clear privacy policy for your blog or personal brand. This policy can help you communicate your commitment to safeguarding your audience’s information and provide transparency about how their data is handled.
Download our comprehensive blog privacy policy template below to ensure your online presence aligns with best privacy practices.
Lamphills Blog Privacy Policy Template
Advantages and Disadvantages of Hiding Your Instagram Followers
Here are some advantages and disadvantages of hiding your Instagram followers:
Advantages
- Reduced Pressure and Anxiety: Hiding followers can alleviate the pressure to meet social expectations or compare yourself to others, leading to a healthier relationship with social media.
- Focus on Content Quality: With follower counts hidden, the focus shifts more towards the quality of content rather than the size of the audience. This can encourage more authentic and creative posts.
- Enhanced Privacy: Hiding your followers can protect your privacy by preventing others from scrutinizing your connections or using your follower list for targeted harassment or marketing.
- Minimized Influence of Follower Count: It reduces the emphasis on vanity metrics, encouraging users to engage with content based on merit rather than the account’s popularity.
- Prevent Judgments: New or smaller accounts can avoid being judged based on their follower count, allowing them to build their presence without preconceived notions.
Disadvantages
- Reduced Transparency: Hiding followers can reduce transparency, making it harder for others to gauge the authenticity of your account, especially in influencer marketing or business contexts.
- Potential loss of credibility: Follower counts can serve as social proof for influencers and brands. Hiding them might lead to questions about credibility or whether the account is trying to mask low engagement.
- Impact on Growth: New followers might hesitate to follow an account without visible social proof, which could slow down organic growth.
- Challenges for Collaborations: Brands and businesses often consider follower counts when considering partnerships. Hidden followers could make it more challenging to attract potential collaborators.
- Perception of Insecurity: Some may interpret the decision to hide followers as a sign of insecurity or lack of confidence in your online presence.
Can Restricted Accounts See Your Followers?
On Instagram, you can manage who can see your followers list. You can restrict accounts so they can still view your profile and public content but limit how they interact with you. For example, restricted accounts can like your posts, view your stories, and comment on them, but their comments are only visible to them and you. You can choose to make their comments visible to the rest of your followers by tapping Approve. Restricted accounts also can’t see when you’re online or if you’ve read their messages, and their messages will go to your message requests.
What Happens if I Restrict Someone on Instagram?
The number of social media users is continuously increasing, as are the cases of cyberbullying. Introduced by Instagram back in 2019, the “Restrict Account” feature aims to foster a more welcoming community and help limit cyberbullying. This feature changes the way certain accounts can interact with you via direct messages or in the comments section.
In short, when you restrict someone, their direct messages won’t land in your inbox, and their comments on your posts won’t be visible to others (at least not right away). This is how restricting an Instagram account is different from blocking.
So now that you know what restricting an account means from the little intro, it’s time to learn what happens when you restrict someone on Instagram.
#1. Messages Land in the Requests Inbox
Unlike regular accounts, messages from restricted accounts arrive in your DMs under the “Requests” tab instead of your inbox. Not even an alert for these communications will reach your inbox. Furthermore, reading the sender’s message from the request’s inbox does not result in the sender seeing a read receipt.
This has only one drawback: you must un-restrict the account to respond to a particular message from a restricted account.
#2. Comments will Be Hidden by Default
The comments section on your posts is where Instagram’s “Restrict Account” feature comes in handy. Even though the restricted person can still comment on your posts, their comments won’t be visible to others—at least not right away.
This means only you and the restricted person can view the comment and won’t even know you have restricted them. Technically, you won’t even be able to see any of the comments directly. You will need to head to the comments of your post by tapping the “View comments” text under it.
Next, tap on the “See Comments” text under the restricted comment on your post. Then, you can either approve the comment or delete it if you find it inappropriate. I suggest you neither approve the comment nor delete it. This way, the comment will stay hidden from all your other followers, and the restricted person won’t even know it.
#3. Active Status will be Hidden
When you turn on the active status on your Instagram account, a person you have had conversations with in DMs can see when you were last active or are currently active.
When you restrict someone, they won’t be able to see your activity status, and you can peacefully message others or scroll through Reels or your feed without them disturbing you.
Why Can’t I See All of Someone’s Followers on Instagram?
If you can’t see all of someone’s followers on Instagram even though you follow them, there could be several reasons for this:
Will My Followers Be Notified if I Remove or Block Them?
No, Instagram does not notify users when you remove or block them. However, they may still be able to tell that they have been removed or blocked if they try to view your profile and find that they can no longer see your posts or stories.
Will Your Followers Know If You Hide Your Instagram Following List From Them?
The big question is, will your followers know if or when you hide your following list from them? Well, they won’t be notified, but for someone deliberately trying to keep tabs on who you follow, they will know it instantly (thanks to their efforts, I mean). Maybe a crazy ex? Lol..Who knows. But if you have someone like that, keeping your following list hidden might be better.
Bottom Line
In this guide, I’ve shown you how to hide followers on Instagram through the three methods I listed, empowering you to take control of your privacy on this popular social media platform.
By understanding Instagram’s privacy settings and following my step-by-step instructions, you can enjoy a safer and more private Instagram experience. Enjoy!
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