Much like bullying in real-life, cyberbullying is also a thing, and it’s pretty damn serious. And given how accessible the internet has become lately, it’s getting out of hand real quick. Instagram is no exception to this issue. That is why they launched an anti-bullying feature in 2019 to control it somewhat. Using this feature, you can restrict a user and control what they can do with your profile. This article will discuss how this Restrict feature on Instagram works and how to know if someone restricted you on Instagram.
What is Restricting a user on Instagram, and how does it work?
While using Instagram, if you are getting annoyed by a user, you can block them. But sometimes blocking a person is too rude, especially if it’s a known individual or a distant relative. That’s where this new Restrict feature comes into play. Using this, you can limit the intersection of the user on your profile without blocking them. Restricting a user on Instagram comes with the following perks-
- The user will no longer see your Active Status.
- Messages by the user will go to the request section of the DM, and Instagram won’t notify you.
- The user will no longer be notified if you’ve seen their DMs or not.
- All the future comments by the user will be invisible to the public. It will be only visible to the user instead.
Overall it does an excellent job of controlling someone’s activity on your profile without getting too rude.
How to know if someone restricted you on Instagram?
Instagram doesn’t send any notification to the user that gets restricted for obvious reasons. If you feel like someone has restricted you, there is no official way to know that directly. However, you can figure things out by some keen observations. We have listed some techniques of how to know if someone restricted you on Instagram below-
Method 1: By Observing their Activity Status.
This method is less effective at confirming all your doubts, but still, it’s the first step to knowing if something is wrong. Instagram doesn’t allow the Activity Status of a person to be seen by the restricted user. If someone actually restricts you, you can no longer know when they are online or their last seen time on Instagram. So go ahead and check the person if they are currently active on Instagram or not or their last seen status. This also requires that you have your Show Activity Status turned on for your profile. To know how to turn on or off Activity Status of Instagram, follow this guide- How to turn off active status on Instagram?
If you are still unable to view the active status even after turning your Activity Status on, chances are the person has restricted you. To confirm your suspicion, let’s move on to our next method.
ALSO READ – How to turn off read receipts on Instagram? [without 3rd Party Apps]
Method 2: How to know if someone restricted you on Instagram by sending a message?
Since checking their activity status is not that effective, you can try our second method, which is sending a DM to the person. However, this method takes a little longer to confirm your suspicions. Go to their profile and try sending them a message. If the message remains unseen for a long time, it probably landed on their message request page. And this somewhat confirms your suspicion.
It’s entirely possible that the person is actually not active for a while and hasn’t really seen the text, but if the person uses Instagram regularly, it’s highly unlikely. That’s why to clear all your doubts, we are moving on to the next method, which requires a little extra step, but it will most definitely confirm all your suspicions.
ALSO READ – How to mute someone on Instagram?
Method 3: By checking your comments using a secondary account.
If someone restricts you on Instagram, your comments on their post won’t be visible to anyone else other than you. You can confirm it by using a different account. Here is how-
- Either use a friend’s account that follows that same person or create a new Instagram account and send a follow request to that person (If the person has a private account).
- Now make a new comment on one of their post using your primary account. You have to make a new comment because all your previous comments will still be visible to everyone before the restriction.
- Now log in to your secondary account and visit their profile.
- Locate the post you’ve just commented on using your primary account and see if your comment is visible on your secondary account.
If you can’t see your recent comment using the secondary account, that, unfortunately, means that the person has restricted your primary account. You can also use this secondary account to reassure our first method by observing their Activity Status using this account.
ALSO READ – How do you unfollow someone on Instagram?
Summary –
So these are the three methods of how to know if someone restricted you on Instagram. If you have any doubts regarding our guide on how to know if someone restricted you on Instagram, feel free to drop them in the comment section below. You can also browse the Instagram section of our website to know a lot more about the platform. You can also browse other topics related to tech in general. We’ve linked some of them below.
