More than a year ago, a new option appeared in the Instagram app – Last Active. It allows you to track a user’s status: online or not, and how many minutes ago the user was last in the feed. This “feature” migrated here from the Viber and WhatsApp messengers, where it has been successfully practiced for a long time.
“But what about privacy?” you may ask. Everything is in order. In Instagram, you can hide your visit time from prying eyes. It’s very easy to do, read our article and you’ll find out everything.
Where is the network status displayed on Instagram?
If you want to find out when a person last logged into the Instagram app, you need to open Direct (the “paper airplane” icon) and tap on any conversation. Under the user’s nickname, you will see a gray message, for example, “Was online 58 minutes ago.” This is the status that interests us, and it is only displayed in the Direct tab.
You may have noticed that some users do not have this message. This means that the person has decided to hide it from their followers. We will explain how they did it below.
Interestingly, if a user is online, a small green circle appears next to their avatar.
How to hide the time of your Instagram visit from your phone
If you want to disable the online icon from your avatar in Direct, choose one of the methods below:
- on Android;
- on iPhone;
- on mobile browser.
Go to the relevant section of the article and follow the steps in the instructions provided.
On Android
So, to hide your visit time on an Android smartphone, you need to follow these steps:
- Unlock your gadget screen and open the Instagram app.
- Log in to your account by entering your username (nickname/email address/mobile number) and password in the empty fields and click “Log in.”
- Tap the “person” icon in the lower right corner.
- Press the menu button and go to settings.
- Scroll down and click on the “Privacy” section.
- Click on the “Network Status” tab.
- Turn the toggle switch to the inactive position.
Done. After all these manipulations, the “Online” label should disappear from your direct messages.
Useful to know. The remote network status is not activated until you turn it on in the settings yourself.
On iPhone
You can delete information about your online status on Instagram for iOS in a similar way:
- Launch the social network app and log in to your account.
- Go to your profile page and click on the “gear” icon, which you will find next to your name and the “Edit” button.
- Scroll down to the “Network Status” option.
- Switch it to the inactive position.
You can easily tell if it worked. If this option is enabled, it will be highlighted in blue in the settings, and if not, it will be gray.
Keep in mind that once you hide your online status, you will no longer see when your friends were last active in the feed. It’s all fair.
Through the mobile version of the browser
If you’re using Instagram through a mobile browser, don’t worry. Removing your online visibility is just as easy. Follow these steps:
- Open your mobile web browser and go to Instagram.com.
- Log in and click on the icon that looks like a “person”.
- Tap on the gear icon located in the top left corner above your profile picture.
- Scroll down and select “Privacy”.
- Find the “Network Status” column and uncheck the option.
That’s it, now you’re practically untraceable.
Disable online status visibility on Instagram on a computer
If you need to turn off the inscription in Direct in the desktop version of the browser, pay attention to the following step-by-step instructions:
- Go to the website Instagram.com and log in to your account.
- Open your profile page and select “Settings”.
- Tap on “Privacy and Security”.
- Click on “Show network status” to remove the checkmark.
Interesting. If you want to know when a person was last active on Instagram, but you have turned off the “Online” option, go to the likes section and see when this user’s last activity was.
You don’t need any professional skills or deep knowledge to hide your visit time on Instagram. It’s as easy as pie. Use this step-by-step guide and be sure to share it with your friends. Perhaps they don’t know that you can turn off the network status in the social network application.