How to restrict an Instagram user?

Red light signaling

In the fight against various types of abuse, spam, offensive behaviour and negative comments on posts, as well as in the chat, Instagram does not leave us without help.

We have many options at our disposal: turn off comments, hide relations, mute the account, or even completely ban it. These are just a few examples of actions that we can take for this purpose. Naturally, if you decide to report the harasser account to Instagram support, but it may be worth taking advantage of the account restriction feature, which works very well.

This is an alternative method of blocking an account, which, as we know, can be easily found out by a blocked person after entering the name of our profile in the search box. The account restriction function, on the other hand, is more discreet and designed so that the user does not guess about its application. We can use it freely, because, just like in the case of blocking a user, Instagram will not notify him of the restriction imposed, moreover, it is temporary, and we can undo the restriction at any time without having to re-following the account.

What exactly gives imposing a restriction on the user? First, he will not be able to see your active status, add comments without your consent (they become public only after approval) and check when you read his message in the chat. We can enable this function in two ways.

Via settings ⚙️

  1. Launch Instagram and go to your profile.
  2. Open the Menu in the upper right corner of the screen.
  3. Select as follows: Settings, Privacy, Restricted accounts.
  4. Search and add the user to the list of restricted accounts.

Via chat 💬

  1. Launch Instagram and go to the home screen.
  2. Click the DM (Direct Message) icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
  3. In the Chats tab, open a conversation from the user you want to restrict.
  4. Click the username at the top of the screen.
  5. Select Restrict.

Will the user know that a restriction has been imposed by me? It is a relatively discreet method compared to, for example, blocking an account. Although he may wonder why he suddenly cannot see your active status or check from a friend's account if the comment he added is visible to everyone.