Instagram has gained popularity over the past few years. From being a photo-sharing platform to one of the widely used app for making reels, Instagram has come a long way. Social media and all is fun until we know there are some risks involved in publically sharing our content and allowing everyone to send us text messages. DMs option in Instagram has made it easy for us to chat with our family and friends, but even a stranger can DM us. Sometimes these messages can be frustrating and disturbing. But you don’t have to worry about those texts anymore. Today we’ll discuss how you can limit who can contact you on Instagram. The type of account you have in terms of privacy- private or public plays a major role in allowing people to contact you. Let us take a look at what is a private account and public account, and also which one is better for security.
Public account and private account
Public account
If you switch your Instagram to a public account, anyone on Instagram can see your posts, like and share them. They can also message you directly and see your stories. Having a public account also means anyone can comment on your videos and photos. It is not important for a user to follow you in order to see your posts.
Private account
Now, this setting is especially for those who wants to put a limitation on who can see their posts, like them, and comment on them. Not everyone can see your posts and comment on them if you switch to a private account. You’ll have to approve the people who have sent you follow request if you want them to see your posts. But remember, a private account has nothing to do with who can text you. Even though you switch to a private account, anyone can message you. The only difference it makes is that random people can’t comment, like, or share your posts.
How to switch between a public and a private account?
Open Instagram app on your deviceClick on the profile picture at the bottom right-cornerNow, look at the upper-right corner and you’ll see three horizontal lines just tap on itGo to settings and click on privacyThere you will see “private account” option with a slide optionYou can change your account privacy from there
Restrict comments and mention
If you don’t want everyone to comment on your posts or mention you in posts, you can change settings for who can comment and mention you in posts. You can choose from: everyone, people who follow you, people you follow. Also, you can block certain people from commenting on your posts. Similarly, you can change option for who can mention you on posts. You can choose from: everyone, people you follow, or no one. The only thing you can’t do on Instagram is, block people or restrict them from liking your posts. To stop someone from liking your posts on Instagram, you will have to block that particular person. However, you can still hide your views and comments before you post anything. All you need to do is:
Create a postGo to advance settings
And turn on hide like and view counts on this post
Besides this, you can choose ‘limits’ from the ‘privacy’ menu to temporary put a block on unwanted messages and comments from people who don’t follow you or have started to follow you recently. As per Instagram, this features helps to avoid harassment.
Protect your DMs
When you open your messages section in Instagram, you will see all the messages received from people whom you are following and whom you have added as your close friends. Other messages that come from the people who aren’t in your following list will appear under ‘requests’ tab. You have three option for what to do with these messages, you can accept the message request, delete the message, or block the user and delete the message. This setting is Instagram’s default setting. To change this setting, go to settings and look for ‘privacy and messages’. From here, you can decide if you want to receive message request from unknown users or not.
Block or restrict users
We all know what blocking is. If you block someone, your profile will not be visible to that particular person which means then can’t do anything with your posts on Instagram account. They will not be able to message you or call you. You can still view their old messages until you delete them. Now, what does restricting someone means? If you restrict someone on Instagram, they will not be able to see when you come online or read their messages. The comments they leave on your posts will only be visible to you and them. Also, when they leave a comment on your posts, you will not be notified. So, now you know how to limit who can contact you on Instagram. Also, know how to temporarily limit someone from commenting on your Instagram posts.
