How To Block Someone on Instagram
We are witnessing the golden years of Instagram. More and more people open a new personal account every day, so companies bet on this platform to advertise through influencers or their own Instagram business accounts. Consequently, ads hog up our stories.
The growth and relevance of Instagram has brought a lot of information to the world. The amount of information available may be excessive, forcing us to decide to block certain Instagram users.
We’ll explain to you in this post how to block someone on Instagram. Would you like to learn how?
Keep reading!
Steps to Block Someone on Instagram
You got tired of receiving all kinds of notifications, content, or messages from certain users, you want to block them, but you don’t know how…
Sometimes you might not take any action to solve this problem, only if you want to avoid reading never-ending articles.
To help you with the process, we have put together these easy steps to block an account on Instagram:
Search for the user that you want to block
You can do it from the usual search tool, from your list of followers if he/she follows you or from your private messages if that person has previously contacted you using this method.
Access and tap the menu
When you enter their profile, you can access the menu represented by three consecutive dots that you find on the top-right side.
Tap block
If you tap the menu, you will see the option block amongst other actions that you could take. Once you take this action, the user will be blocked immediately.
Why Block Someone on Instagram?
Sometimes we feel overwhelmed with our accounts on this social platform because we’re so exposed and available. Perhaps, another user is stalking you and you don’t want to know anything about him/her again.
Below, you can find three common scenarios that might make you consider blocking a profile:
🔒 SPAM. There are some profiles where the only objective is to sell and advertise through private messages and comments without your approval.
🔒 Meddling. An Instagram user that you don’t know usually comments on your photos or replies to your stories.
🔒 Harassment. If you feel hounded by someone, a good option will be to block that person. If it persists, you could opt to report it on this same platform.
What Happens If You Block a Profile on Instagram?
Before blocking that profile from your Instagram account, we will tell you what happens if you do it so you can decide whether it is convenient for you to block someone or not. The profile you block …
- You won’t be able to find your account in the Instagram search engine. When they write your name, no search results will appear.
- Can’t see the content you publish on Instagram: Feed posts, Reels, IGTV, stories, nothing. By blocking, you won’t see their content either.
- Cannot contact you through direct messages. Any communication channel between you is eliminated.
- Will keep the exchanged messages and comments before the blocking takes place. That is, nothing is deleted before the account is blocked.
Alternatives to Blocking a Profile on Instagram
Fortunately, Instagram offers ways to privatize your profile without resorting to blocking someone.
So, what are those alternatives?
✅ Private account. Only users that you previously accepted as followers will be able to see your profile. To change your account from Public to Private, just go to your ‘Settings and Privacy‘, click ‘Account Privacy‘, and toggle from Public to Private.
✅ Hide stories. Instead of Blocking someone fully, you can choose to just hide users from seeing your story. To do this, head to ‘Settings and Privacy’, click on ‘Hide Story’, and search for users you want to hide.
✅ Comments. You can filter comments through settings. Choose which words can or cannot appear on your wall.
✅ Replies to stories. Select who can reply to your stories: Everyone, people you follow, or deactivate this option together.
✅ Mute Someone on Instagram. You can mute a user if you don’t want to see any of the content they post, or you can just mute their Stories. All you have to do is search for the user or find them in your following list, tap the ‘Following‘ button and you will see all the options, choose ‘Mute‘.
This is a great alternative to keep your privacy if you don’t feel comfortable blocking someone.
How to Unblock Someone on Instagram
You have two options available in case you want to unblock a user and interact with them again:
➡️ Search their profile. Instead of the option “follow”, you will see “unblock”. Simply tap it and it’s done.
➡️ Access your profile settings that you can find by clicking the three horizontal lines on the top-right side of your wall. In ‘Privacy’, go to ‘Blocked Users”. In this section, you will find the profile you want to unblock.
How To See Who Blocked You On Instagram
There is no quick and easy way to tell exactly who blocked you on Instagram but there are some ways to find out. Here is how:
One way to find out is to search for the user who you think may have blocked you. If their profile does not come up they may have blocked you. To be able to tell for sure is to search the profile on another account. If the profile comes up on the other account, you can tell for sure that you have been blocked.
You can also tell if you are blocked when you search their profile and if they are private and the account does not show up, you are probably blocked by this user. If their account is public and you cannot see their posts, profile pic, or follower count, you are probably blocked from this user.
