These days, social networking sites include a function that displays when someone last logged on, which can be either useful or problematic and depending on your situation you may not want this, and want to learn how to hide last seen on Instagram.
Users of Instagram, your favorite photo-sharing program, will see which friends you were last online. When you open up Instagram, the app’s “Activity Status” option displays whether you’ve used it recently. It’s now disabled by default in your account, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Instagram and WhatsApp differ on how they notify you when a contact’s status changes. The person you’re chatting with in a conversation thread has an optional “Last Seen” presence on WhatsApp, whereas Instagram informs you how long it’s been since the user was active when looking at their messages in your Direct inbox. If someone is currently using Instagram, a green indicator will be next to their name.
However, for whatever reason, you may not want anyone – or perhaps anybody – to know when you were last active on social media. Fortunately, WhatsApp and Instagram provide you with the option to conceal your activity status in the app. Our emphasis is on how to conceal your Instagram profile in this post, but you may learn how to do the identical thing on WhatsApp in our dedicated tutorial here.
However, if you need more privacy, take a look at the details on the official site. Now let’s learn how to hide last seen on Instagram.
How to hide last seen on Instagram?
The activity status function shows if and when you’ve DM’d other people when you were last active on Instagram. Your status is only visible to followers. If someone follows you but you don’t accept their follow, they will not be able to see your status. The same is true for your friends. If they follow you back, you can see when they last logged in.
Follow these steps to hide last seen on Instagram:
- Launch the Instagram app
- Tap the profile icon in the bottom-right corner
- Tap the three lines in the top-right corner
- Tap Settings
- Tap Privacy
- Tap Activity Status
- Tap the switch to toggle off Show activity status
Who can see last seen on Instagram?
You can’t see when you were most recently on Instagram if a user is not following you. People you follow, or who have direct conversations (DMs) with you will only be aware of how many minutes or hours ago you went online.
Users that use Instagram to chat with businesses or creative individuals and want to see whether they’re online or respond quickly will benefit from this option.
How to tell if someone is online on Instagram?
According to the company, there are a few different methods to detect when someone is active on Instagram:
- You’ll see a green dot next to their username and photo in your direct inbox and other places on Instagram.
- In your direct inbox, you’ll see their most recent Active Status (example: Active 25 m ago, Active yesterday, Seen, Typing…).
- When you open the conversation, you’ll also be able to see activity (e.g. in the chat, in the camera).
Should you keep activity status on or off?
Now that you’ve learned how to hide last seen on Instagram, it’s time to dig more into the Activity Status feature. There are a few advantages to keeping it on. It allows you to keep track of the online activity of your friends without feeling guilty. As a result, if you want to send someone a hilarious meme at precisely the right time, you can expect them to see it promptly or shortly afterward.
However, it’s also possible to turn it off, which has the advantage of allowing you to access Instagram without anyone knowing. That means that you may respond to DMs when you have time, and you don’t feel as if someone is monitoring your usage. The only disadvantage is that once you switch the function off, you will no longer be able to see other people’s activity statuses.
Don’t be concerned if you want to keep your late-night puppy picture scroll fests entirely private. You can quickly prevent Instagram’s activity status function by following the above steps.
Protect your privacy by turning off Activity Status on Instagram
It’s already hard enough to keep your personal life private on social media. In your settings, switch off the activity status so that you aren’t inadvertently revealing it to people you’ve DM’d. You can have privacy while you use the app like this. This way you’ve learned how to hide last seen on Instagram. If you want to find out how to turn on profile views on Instagram or How to delete Instagram account easily we’ve got you covered.