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How To Block Someone on Instagram

How To Block Someone on Instagram

Instagram is a great place to spend an idle hour or two. Looking at pictures, catching up with friends, reading Stories, chatting via Direct Message, and discovering more about this wild world in which we live can be truly wonderful experiences.

The openness and sharing intent of the platform is followed through by most people using this as a positive experience, making it one of the better social networks for hanging out and learning more. Yet that isn’t always the case, which is why we are going to show you how to block someone on Instagram.

Although social media can be a tool used to bring people together, there are some accounts you no longer wish to interact with.  Whether it is you don’t want someone to see your posts or someone who is excessively negative, Instagram developers have added many options for content customization.

Blocking Someone on Instagram

Instagram makes the process fairly simple for blocking a user account. Depending on the current situation, blocking may not be necessary. There are other options for users of the platform that are customizable.

Why Block Someone?

Blocking someone on Instagram should ideally be the last resort. In many cases, negative interactions are only temporary. However, that’s definitely not true of every interaction.  If their behavior is toxic, triggering, inappropriate, or is causing you psychological damage, then you may not have a choice.  If the account is definitely spam, a bot, or harassing you with endless DMs, you may want to block further communications.

As this tutorial is about blocking on Instagram, we’ll first go through the basic process of blocking someone on Instagram.  As different operating systems may appear a little different it’s important to follow the step-by-step instructions. Each new update may tweak small changes for the process as well.

Blocking Someone Using the Instagram App

  1. Open the app and navigate to the offending user’s Instagram profile by tapping on the magnifying glass(search) icon.
  2. Once you’ve selected the appropriate account, select the three-dot menu icon in the top right.
  3. A menu will appear with several options for this user’s account. Select Block.
  4. Confirm the warning by hitting Block again and select Dismiss when the final warning appears.

Verify that the app has successfully blocked the account as some have reported issues. If necessary, attempt to block again if it fails the first time.

Unblock the Account

If you need to unblock them again, it is just as easy. Blocking may feel final, but it is not absolute- you can always unblock someone later.  You just repeat the above but select “Unblock” from the menu instead.

  1. Open the app and navigate to the person’s Instagram profile.
  2. Select the three-dot menu icon in the top right.
  3. Select Unblock from the popup menu that appears.

If it has been a little while since you blocked the person, you may have trouble finding them. The person will not appear when you search and their posts will have been removed from your feed. So what do you do?

You have three options, you could access your block list, type https://www.instagram.com/[username] into a web browser, or find a post from a mutual friend where the person you blocked has commented.

Another option is to find the list of all the accounts you have blocked from within your own profile.

  1. Select the three-line menu icon from your Instagram profile.
  2. Select Settings.
  3. Select Privacy.
  4. Select Blocked Accounts.
  5. Select the person from the list and select Unblock

Or:

  1. Navigate to a mutual friend’s post where the blocked person has commented.
  2. Select their profile and the three-dot menu icon.
  3. Select Unblock as above.

Perhaps a better option may be to stop the person from commenting on your photos or video. If it’s their comments that are causing issues, adjusting your comment privileges may be a better option than blocking them altogether.  If someone is commenting on your photos or posts you can limit their audience.

  1. Select your profile and select the Settings menu.
  2. Select Privacy.
  3. Tap on Comments.
  4. Select Block Comments From.
  5. Search for the person you want to stop commenting on and select Block.

This doesn’t block them entirely, it just stops them from being able to comment on your photos or videos. This may be enough to clean up your feed and give you peace while you’re using the app. 

There are also a variety of comment filtering options here that you might want to explore, including filters that hide offensive comments, and a manual filter that lets you hide comments with certain trigger words.

Before You Block Someone On Instagram

Considering alternative means of limiting content are available for Instagram users. If you’d like to stop seeing much of the content the account is posting you can unfollow the account. By choosing the account and tapping on the box that says “Following” you will be able to mute or restrict the user and their content.

Doing this as an alternative to blocking may help you to avoid spamming or annoying content. You can reverse this by selecting the same box from their account page and toggle back to “following.”

Restricting an account means that you can control a variety of interactions. You will be able to control how many of your followers see the offending user’s comments on your posts. Restricting an account also moves direct messages to the “Message Requests” folder, meaning you won’t see them in your regular Direct Messaging files.

Social media has done a lot of good in bringing people together and giving us more ways to express ourselves. Instagram is providing options to users that allow for a more pleasant and customized experience.

What Happens After You Block Someone?

The owner of the account will NOT be notified that you have blocked them. When you’ve blocked an account, the user is still able to see your likes and comments on “Public” posts.

Although the user will not have access to your account through the “Search” option, they still have the ability to mention your Instagram name in posts, you won’t be notified of this activity. In some cases, you may want to change your username.

For those in a group message with the users, you will be prompted if you want to leave the group. If you choose to stay in the group you will continue to see their messages.

Mutual comments and likes may still appear after the blocking process is complete. You can go to each post and delete the offending user’s activity if necessary.

Frequently Asked Questions

We’ve compiled some more answers to your questions about Instagram’s blocking feature below.

If I block someone, can they still see my messages?

If you block someone, they can still see the messages you’ve sent them before blocking. If you want to get rid of these messages, you can try to unsend them by long-pressing an individual message and tapping ‘Unsend.’ If the option doesn’t appear it’s too late and there’s no way to delete the message on the blocked users’ end.

What can a blocked user see about my profile?

If you’re in a group message the user will be able to read any chats you send. They’ll also get to see your profile picture (we tested this in the DMs and the profile picture still shows).

Outside of that, the other user shouldn’t be able to see too much about your account or your activities. If someone is harassing you or making threats, it’s best to report the user to the Instagram Support team.

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