How-To

How to Mute People on Instagram: Posts, Stories, DMs

Updated 10 min read
Title card reading 'How to Mute People on Instagram: Posts, Stories, DMs' with a phone outline and layered screens on an emerald gradient

Muting lets you stop seeing someone’s posts, stories or notes, or silence their messages and calls, while you keep following them, and Instagram won’t let them know. Here’s how to mute people on Instagram for posts and stories: open their profile, tap Following, then Mute, and switch on Posts, Stories or both. The other mutes have their own steps below.

Muting changes what you see, not what they can do. Instagram’s own November 2024 guide pitches it as the way to control your feed and stories “without cutting off someone entirely.” Checked against About Instagram: Difference Between Restrict, Mute, Block & Report on Instagram (22 November 2024) Instagram’s other controls are mapped in our guide to how to use Instagram.

Table of Contents

What happens when you mute someone on Instagram?

Their posts leave your feed, their stories leave the bar at the top of it, or their messages and calls go quiet, depending on what you mute. You still follow them, and Instagram won’t let them know. Checked against Instagram Help Center: Mute or unmute someone on Instagram

  • Each mute is separate. Muting someone’s posts, stories or messages doesn’t mute their notes, and muting their notes doesn’t hide their stories or posts. Muting one story from the stories bar leaves their posts and notes in place.
  • Their profile still works. When Instagram launched Mute in May 2018, it said you can still see a muted account’s posts on their profile page and still get notified about comments or posts you’re tagged in. Checked against About Instagram: Introducing Mute (22 May 2018)
  • It’s mostly a phone feature. Instagram’s Help Center gives computer steps for muting messages and calls only. For posts, stories and notes, it gives app steps.

How to mute people on Instagram: posts and stories

Use the Following menu on their profile, where Posts and Stories each have a toggle, or the Options menu on one of their feed posts. The profile route is the one to remember, because it’s also where you unmute. Instagram’s November 2024 guide lists Notes on that same Mute screen, next to Posts and Stories. The Help Center’s steps are the same on iPhone and Android:

On iPhone: from their profile:

  1. Tap their username from their Feed or story post, or tap Search and search their username to go to their profile.
  2. Tap Following below their profile info.
  3. Tap Mute.
  4. Tap the toggle next to Posts or Stories. To unmute them, tap the toggle again next to Posts or Stories.

On iPhone: from Feed:

  1. Tap Options next to their post.
  2. Tap Hide.
  3. Tap Mute [username], then tap Mute Posts or Mute Posts and Story.

Checked against Instagram Help Center: Mute or unmute someone on Instagram.

The profile route starts from the Following button, so it’s for accounts you follow. For someone you only chat with, the message mute below starts from the chat itself.

How to mute someone’s story from the stories bar

Press and hold their profile picture in the stories bar at the top of your feed, then mute their stories. Only their story is muted: Instagram says you’ll still see their posts in feed and the notes they share. Unmuting goes through their stories rather than the bar. The mute and unmute lists below are the same on Android:

On iPhone: mute a story:

  1. At the top of feed, tap and hold the profile picture of the person whose story you'd like to mute.
  2. Select Mute, then tap Mute stories.

On iPhone: unmute a story:

  1. Tap their username from their feed post, or tap Search and search their username to go to their profile.
  2. Tap their profile picture in the top left to go to their stories.
  3. Tap Options in the top right.
  4. Tap Unmute story.

Checked against Instagram Help Center: Mute or unmute someone's Instagram story.

How to mute messages or calls

Open your chat with them, tap their name at the top, then Mute, and switch on Mute messages, Mute calls or both. It’s the one mute Instagram documents on a computer too. Its November 2024 guide says muting messages removes notifications, from one sender or from a group chat. The iPhone steps, identical on Android:

On iPhone:

  1. Tap Messages at the bottom.
  2. Tap the chat with the person you want to mute/unmute.
  3. Tap the person's name at the top of your chat, then tap Mute at the top.
  4. Tap the toggle next to Mute messages or Mute calls to mute/unmute someone.

Checked against Instagram Help Center: Mute or unmute someone on Instagram.

On instagram.com, the toggle sits behind the Information icon in the chat:

On the web:

  1. Click Messages on the left.
  2. Click the chat with the person you want to mute/unmute.
  3. Click Information in the top right of your chat.
  4. Click the toggle next to Mute messages or to mute call notifications. Click the toggle again to unmute someone.

Checked against Instagram Help Center: Mute or unmute someone on Instagram.

What else lives in your inbox, from message requests to vanish mode, is covered in our guide to Instagram Direct.

How to mute someone’s notes

Press and hold their note in your Messages inbox, then tap Mute notes and confirm. Notes need their own mute, because muting someone’s posts, stories or messages doesn’t cover them. Instagram says people aren’t notified when you mute their notes, and you unmute them from the Mute screen on their profile. Instagram publishes one list for every phone:

In the Instagram app: mute notes:

  1. Tap Messages at the bottom.
  2. Tap and hold a note.
  3. Tap Mute notes, then confirm your choice.

In the Instagram app: unmute notes:

  1. Go to a profile that you've muted notes from.
  2. Tap Following at the top of their profile, then tap Mute.
  3. Tap the toggle next to Notes to unmute their notes.

Checked against Instagram Help Center: Mute or unmute notes from someone on Instagram.

For what notes are and who can see yours, read our guide to Instagram notes.

How to unmute someone on Instagram

Most mutes are switched off on the person’s profile: tap Following, then Mute, and turn off Posts, Stories or Notes. Messages and calls are unmuted with the same toggles in your chat with them, on your phone or on instagram.com. A story you muted from the stories bar has its own route, through the Options menu while you view their stories, as in the steps above. Instagram’s 2018 launch post put the point simply: you can unmute an account “to get their posts back in your feed.”

Mute, restrict or unfollow?

Mute when you’d rather not see someone, restrict when you’d rather they couldn’t reach you as easily, and unfollow when you’re done following them.

Muting is also a way to tidy your feed without unfollowing anyone. How Instagram orders everything else is covered in how the Instagram algorithm works.

Outfeed AI publishes this guide, so here is where it stands on muting:

Queue up your next Instagram feed post in Outfeed AI

Muting on Instagram: FAQ

What happens when you mute someone on Instagram?

Their posts leave your feed, their stories leave the bar at the top of it, or their messages and calls go quiet, depending on what you mute. You keep following them, and Instagram won’t let them know. Notes are separate: muting posts, stories or messages doesn’t mute their notes.

Does muting someone on Instagram notify them?

No. Instagram says it won’t let them know you muted them, and its notes article says people aren’t notified when you mute their notes. Muting isn’t unfollowing either: you still follow them.

Can you mute someone’s stories but not their posts?

Yes. On their profile, tap Following, then Mute, and switch on Stories only; Posts has its own toggle. Or press and hold their picture in the stories bar at the top of your feed and mute their stories. Instagram says you’ll still see their posts in feed and the notes they share.

Is muting someone the same as restricting them?

Mute changes what you see: their posts, stories, messages or notes are muted for you, and they aren’t told. Restrict changes what they can do on your account: their new comments are visible only to them unless you approve them, their chat moves to Message Requests, and they can’t see when you’re online.

How do I unmute someone on Instagram?

Go to their profile, tap Following, then Mute, and turn off the Posts, Stories or Notes toggle. For messages or calls, turn off the toggle in your chat with them. A story you muted from the stories bar is unmuted from the Options menu while you view their stories.

instagram instagram mute privacy instagram stories instagram dms