Instagram recently introduced a new feature called Mute User that allows you to hide a user’s posts from the feed without removing their Follow, a way to choose how and when to see what they publish, without necessarily removing it from your account.
With the Mute User function, it will be possible to silence all the most annoying contacts, avoiding displaying the posts published daily in your feed, without letting them know that you have decided not to follow them anymore.
Sometimes, having a good number of Instagram followers can be important, especially for those who do business, so unfollowing one or more users could lead to similar behavior, negatively affecting the number of followers.
This function is very similar to Facebook, which allows you to silence and hide photos, videos, and stories posted by a user without deleting him from his friends, basically for the same reasons that push us not to remove them from Instagram.
Furthermore, it is possible to make a clear choice, selecting the type of content to “mute” between only photos and videos with stories or all but individually; in the latter case, the user is wholly obscured without removing them from the following list.
Why and How to Use the Instagram Mute User Function?
The Mute User function has several uses and can be used for various reasons as a substitute for a more drastic choice, such as deleting a contact.
This function is beneficial if you want to hide from the Instagram feed photos and videos of people who post content that is not pleasant or of little interest but still have followers.
Sometimes you decide to start following someone on Instagram for knowledge or because, at first glance, it seems that that person publishes exciting content. Then, over time you realize that you no longer want to see their photos and videos; in this case, the Mute User function is ideal not to be rude.
Until recently, it was not possible to “mute” the contact activity; now, it can be done without negatively affecting the number of followers on your account.
Even in the case of the private Instagram account, the Mute user function is beneficial. Beforehand, if you no longer wanted to see the contents of a specific user, you had to remove them from friends. But this meant that to regain access to their profile in case of second thoughts, you must send a new follow request, and the answer was not always positive.
Now, in the same way as “public” profiles, even private ones can be silenced, preventing photos and videos from being shown in the feed without removing the “Follow” and, therefore, without losing access to the private account.
Another positive aspect? Muted people will not know anything about this choice and how all their contents have been hidden.
Beyond the ability to mute contacts who publish unwanted content, this function allows you to have a personalized feed. You can decide to leave only the Instagram accounts that post videos and photos of interest and mute everything else.
How to Activate the Mute User Function
The procedure for muting a user is an effortless operation that can be done by following three ways, all fairly immediate and easy to perform.
Mute User From Feed
In this case, tap on the three dots next to the username and choose the Mute item.
Mute User From the Stories Tray
The stories tray is the area at the top of the feed where you can see the most recent stories; in this case, hold your finger on the profile for a few seconds and then choose Mute.
Mute Users From Their Profile
Let’s go to the user profile we want to mute and tap on the dots at the top right and then choose Mute.
Even if you decide to mute an Instagram profile, it will always be possible to see their posts by going directly to the user’s page; you will receive notifications on comments and posts in which you are tagged.
What Happens When You Mute Someone?
You can still watch all of the Stories of a muted user if you scroll to the end of your Story Feed, they will be here with Stories you’ve already watched. So, you won’t miss out on anything.
However, you have to enter their profile manually to see the picture posts and videos they shared. Hence, you can scroll down on your Feed and see their stuff.
If you wish to unmute someone, you can follow the same process to do so. They won’t know that you muted and unmuted them.
How to Unmute Users?
Maybe for some reason, you had an afterthought on a muted user, and you want to unmute them to see again the content that they publish on the feed; how to do?
Also, in this case, unmuting a user is simple, and it is possible to do it with a swift procedure:
- Go to the user’s profile
- Tap on the ellipsis at the upper-right,
- Choose Unmute
FAQs About Instagram Mute
Sometimes you have to follow some people on Instagram. Thanks to the mute feature, you will not see these users’ movements by muting their posts.
You can mute users by clicking the Mute option by entering the user profile you want to mute on Instagram.
If you mute a user on Instagram, that user will not be notified.
You can set your Instagram notifications either on the device or in the profile settings.
If other users block your Instagram profile, you will not receive any notification.
You can edit your Instagram direct message notifications in the settings section or turn them off.
Conclusion on Instagram Mute – Silence Can Be a Gem
As we have seen, this function is beneficial, and it is also quite simple to use; there is a small downside: unlike what happens for blocked users, it is not possible to have a general overview of those that you have decided to mute.
Instagram has a dedicated page that collects the list of all blocked users, while no section allows you to see all muted users, which means that you have to remember them by heart or write them down somewhere.
Most likely, after introducing this feature, Instagram will already be working on how to make a list of muted users available to facilitate quick unmuting in case of second thoughts.
