As an Instagram user, you have the option to make your profile public or private. If your account is public, your followers and non-followers can interact with your posts and see who you follow and who follows you.
This way, your Instagram friends are visible to everyone. However, you can “hide” your friends by limiting the visibility of your Instagram account.
As long as you have followers on Instagram, you can’t directly hide an Instagram friend from people. The best you can do is reduce your account’s visibility, restrict people, or block someone. Limiting your account’s visibility means switching from a public account to a private one, hence locking up your account with only people you trust.
This article highlights how you can go about each option and its impact on “hiding” your friends on the app.
Why Would You Need To Hide Your Friends on Instagram?
Although social networks are primarily for connecting with your friends and catching a glimpse of other people’s lives, they’ve become a malicious tool for stalkers and cyberbullies.
It’s easy for people to look up a person on a social network and interact with them as they wish. However, these social networks prioritize their users’ privacy and security, giving them features to control who has access to their accounts.
On Instagram, you might need to hide your friends from a stalker or cyberbully who knows they can access them through your account.
This is because Instagram will display your followers and the following list to anyone as long as your page is public.
If you need to control that, you’re open to three options: turning your account private, restricting the person/persons, or blocking them.
Making your page private isn’t new, and neither is blocking. But if you restrict someone on Instagram, you’re stifling their access to your Instagram account.
A person you restrict on Instagram will not know when you’re online, won’t see if you’ve read their messages, and their comments on your posts will be hidden until you choose to see them.
How To Change Your Account From Public to Private
Before making your account private because you want to hide your friends, you must ensure your followers are trustworthy.
You don’t want to make your account private with the person stalking your friends; hence, you must be sure of your circle of friends.
Once you make your account private, people can only see your number of followers and the people you follow.
The accounts of the people you follow or those that follow you will remain hidden until a person’s request is accepted to become your follower.
It’s pretty simple to make your account private, whether on your iOS or Android device. These are the steps to follow to do so:
- Open the Instagram app on your mobile device.
- Tap on the profile icon in the bottom right corner.
- Click on the hamburger menu icon in the top right corner.
- Select “Settings.”
- Tap on “Privacy.”
- Toggle on the “Private account” option.
How To Restrict Someone From Your Account
Restricting a person from your account doesn’t exactly hide your friends from them. However, you can ask your friends to restrict the person, so they have limited access to them.
As mentioned earlier, this restriction means invisible comments, hidden activity status, and toggling off the read receipt for your messages.
You can restrict an account from your Instagram, either on your Android or iOS device, in the following steps:
- Launch the Instagram app and sign in if you haven’t.
- Tap on the profile icon in the bottom right corner.
- Tap on the hamburger menu icon in the top right corner.
- Select “Settings.”
- Tap on “Privacy.”
- Under “Connections,” click on “Restricted accounts.”
- Tap “Continue” at the bottom.
- Type in the account you want to restrict in the search box.
- Once the name pops up, tap the “Restrict” button beside their name.
How To Block Someone on Instagram
Blocking a person on Instagram totally cuts them off from viewing your profile.
It’s the surest way to hide your friends from a person on Instagram, and more so if you don’t want the person interacting with your posts.
Whether you’re using an Android or iOS device, follow these steps to block a person from your Instagram:
- Launch Instagram and sign in.
- Go to the search box and enter the account name you want to block.
- Tap on their profile.
- Tap on the three-dot icon at the top right.
- Tap on the “Block” option.
- Confirm that you want to block the person by tapping “Block.”
When an account is blocked, people won’t be able to search for your account, tag you, or mention your username in any post. The block option literally cuts off any ties you have with a person on Instagram.
Conclusion
Although you can’t directly hide your friends from any account on Instagram, these are the alternatives you can explore.
If you think the person is a threat to you or your friends, you can report the account to Instagram.
If it goes beyond Instagram, be sure to alert the appropriate authorities.
