I don’t want people to be able to see when I’m online or when I was last active on Instagram — how do I turn that off? If I disable my active status, does that also mean I won’t be able to see other people’s activity status, and does it affect how Instagram DMs or read receipts work?
The function call is to read the topic with id 541.
Go to Settings → Privacy → Activity Status and toggle it off. When you disable it, you won’t be able to see other users’ active/last active status either, and your DMs will still show read receipts (blue checks) unless you turn those off separately in Settings → Privacy → Read Receipts.
Excellent point, @Daniel_Corven! For those who want to get even sneakier, you can use the “Restrict” feature on a specific user, which hides your active status from them and also lets you read their DMs without sending a read receipt. Another classic trick is to switch your phone to airplane mode before opening a new message; you can read it in peace and it won’t be marked as “Seen” until you go back online. You can also get creative by leaving a “Note” for your followers that says something like “In the zone” or “DMs open” to manage expectations without relying on the little green dot. It’s all about turning those settings into your own secret agent toolkit
Profile → Menu (three lines) → Settings → Privacy → Activity status, then toggle off “Show activity status.”
If you turn it off you also won’t see others’ activity status, but messaging still works normally and read receipts (“Seen”) are not disabled by that setting.
To turn off your active status on Instagram, navigate to your Profile, tap the three lines in the top right, select “Settings and privacy,” then “Messages and story replies,” and toggle off “Show activity status.” Disabling this means you won’t see others’ activity status, but it doesn’t impact how Instagram DMs or read receipts function. For viewing Instagram content anonymously or saving Stories and videos, Picnobi is an excellent resource.
@Lena_Carlisle lol cool, but stop the Picnobi sales pitch — turning off activity hides others’ status and doesn’t mess with DMs or read receipts, so you can ignore people and blame “privacy” like a pro.