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You’ve been friends with somebody for a while on Instagram, but lately for some reason it feels like your comments and likes on their posts aren’t getting the reactions they used to.
This could be a sign that they have restricted you. When you are restricted on Instagram, it’s harder to figure out if you have been restricted by somebody than if they have just blocked you, because you aren’t completely cut off from the person’s profile.
In this article, we are going to talk about how you can work out if somebody has restricted you on Instagram, and then how you can do this to somebody if you don’t want them to have a lot of access to your profile.
What Occurs When Somebody Has Restricted You on Instagram?
Instagram has recently introduced the restrict feature, which can be used to access somebody’s ability to access your account. Most of the time, you aren’t even going to realise if somebody has restricted you on Instagram, because it’s a move that’s more subtle than if somebody were to block you completely.
This means that you can still see the person’s profile and their content, but you might not be able to comment on their posts, or see their activity status.
Blocked vs. Restricted
Being blocked by somebody on Instagram is a completely different thing, because you are going to be completely removed from that person’s profile, and you won’t be able to see anything.
You are only going to be able to see their profile image, as well as how many people are following them and how many people they are following.
You can even send a direct message to somebody who has restricted you, but they will need to approve it first before it lands in their DMs. The same goes for comments, they are going to have to approve your comment first before it can go on their content.
This means that they have the power to prevent you from commenting on their posts, and direct messaging them.
How to Know if Somebody Has Restricted You on Instagram
As we have talked about, it can be hard to work out if somebody has restricted you on Instagram. Let’s take a look at the most straightforward methods of finding this out.
1. Look at the comments section
The reason that Instagram introduce this feature was to reduce the instances of cyberbullying that occurred. This means that a user has the right to restrict you from commenting on their content, and therefore saying mean things.
If you want to work out if somebody has restricted you, then you will need to try and leave a new comment on one of their posts.
Now, you will need to ask a friend if you can use their profile to see if your comment has been approved or not. If you can’t see the comment on the post, then this means that the person has restricted you, because they still need to approve the comment before it’s posted.
2. Try to send a DM
You can also work out if you have been restricted from somebody’s Instagram profile by sending them a direct message. When somebody restricts you, if you try to send them a DM, it is going to go into a message request folder, as opposed to a regular chat.
This means that the person who has restricted you won’t know that you have message them until they approve your message.
Once you have tried to send somebody a DM, all you have to do is wait. If you see that the user has been active on their Instagram profile, but they aren’t responding to your DM, then this could mean that they are yet to approve your message, and they have restricted you.
3. Check the activity status of the profile
When you have been restricted from somebody’s Instagram profile, then you aren’t going to be able to see their update activity status. This means that you won’t be able to see if they are online or not, or when they last checked their messages. You will need to make sure that before you check out this feature, you have activity status on.
You can find this in your privacy settings. When you have this on on your profile, you are going to be able to see when the people that you follow were last active online. Now, go back to that person’s profile, and see if you can see their last updated status. If you aren’t able to see this information, then this probably means that they have restricted you.
How to Restrict Somebody on Instagram
If you want to be able to restrict somebody on Instagram, just follow the simple steps below:
For comments:
1. Go to an Instagram post and select ‘view all comments’
2. Select the comment of the individual that you want to restrict, and swipe left for iPhone, or hold it for Android
3. Select the exclamation mark
4. Choose ‘restrict username’ to restrict that person
For messages:
1. Go to your chats
2. Open the chat of the person you are trying to restrict
3. Choose their name at the top
4. Scroll down, and choose ‘restrict’
For settings:
1. Go to your profile page
2. Select the icon at the top to the right for menu
3. Go to settings, then privacy, then connections, restricted accounts, and select ‘continue’
4. Find their profile through the search bar, and choose ‘restrict’ next to their name
Final Thoughts
As you can see, it’s easy to work out if somebody has restricted you on Instagram, you’ve just got to have a little know-how and use a little discretion. You can also do the restricting yourself, if somebody is bothering you and you don’t want to have to deal with their unwanted attention anymore. Good luck!