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How to check DMs on Instagram without being “seen”

Many of us interact with people who are not our friends on Instagram, and sometimes you might want to check a message that they have sent but not be “seen”. When you check any DM on Instagram, it is immediately marked as “seen” for both you and the other person who has sent it. WhatsApp has the option of turning off read receipts (the blue ticks) but Instagram has no such feature.


You can check your DMs on Instagram and not be “seen”. 



Whether you follow the person or not, if you have seen a message sent by them, it will be marked as “seen” and the person on the other side will know. So for whatever reason you might have not wanted to be “seen” having read that message, maybe you don't have time or inclination to engage in the conversation further, or you just don't want to talk, it makes the situation a little awkward.

However, there are two ways how you can check DMs on Instagram without it being marked as “seen”. One is a temporary solution, the other is more permanent. Depending on why you want to not be “seen” reading the DMs, you can decide which one you want to use.


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The temporary solution to read DMs without letting the sender know

- Open your Instagram app and go to your DMs. This will load all your new DMs.

- Now, open the smartphone's control center and turn off both WiFi and your mobile data.

- Go back to your DMs and now, make sure the mobile data and WiFi are still off.

- If you check the DMs now, you will not see the “seen” report since your internet is off.

- The very moment you turn the internet on again and open the app, the “seen” report is going to pop up on the message, so you must keep in mind that this solution is very temporary.

The more permanent solution to reading DMs without being “seen”


- For this, you need to do a little bit of work.

- When you spot a DM from someone you don't want to be “seen” by but you still want to read the message, don't click on the message, obviously.

- Go to the concerned person's profile. Next, you need to ‘restrict’ this person. Click on the three dots on the top right of the profile page and select “Restrict".

- Restricting the account limits unwanted conversations with the person without you having to unfollow or block them. You will also get to decide if the comments made by these restricted people on your posts are visible to everyone or not. Also, their message is going to be moved to the “Message Requests” folder so they won't be able to see if you have read it or not. So, you can not be “seen”.


- You need to decide if you want to restrict an account since you will also not get updates when they message you next. You will manually have to check your “Message Request” folder to find out.

So figure out for how long and why you'd want to not be “seen” and take a pick.

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