How-To

How to Turn Off Instagram Read Receipts

By Brian Burgess

Last Updated on September 30, 2022

Want to read a message on Instagram without alerting the sender? You can temporarily stop (but not block) Instagram read receipts using this guide.

When you send a message to another user on Instagram, the service prepares a read receipt. When you open the app, you’ll be able to see a notification that they’ve read your message when you open up the conversation.

If you’re the recipient, you might not want a user to know when or if you read their message. Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to turn off Instagram read receipts directly, but there are a few workarounds.

To help you, here are some workarounds you can try to help you to stop Instagram read receipts.

How to Stop Instagram Read Receipts Temporarily

One of the workarounds you can use is to read the person’s message after putting your phone into airplane mode and turning off Wi-Fi. Disabling data connectivity allows you to read messages on Instagram without any read receipts appearing.

This is because Instagram can’t alert its servers (or the sender) that you’ve read the messages. This is only temporary, however, as your read receipt will update once you reconnect to the internet.

Note: Before enabling airplane mode and disabling Wi-Fi, make sure to open the Instagram app to load any saved messages—just don’t open them yet.

How to Hide Instagram Read Receipts on iPhone

To hide Instagram read receipts on iPhone:

1. Swipe down from the top of the screen to bring up the control center.
2. Tap the Airplane Mode button.
3. Alternatively, you can open Settings and toggle on the Airplane Mode option.
4. On the same screen, under Airplane Mode, tap Wi-Fi.
5. Toggle off the Wi-Fi button to ensure Wi-Fi on your phone is entirely disabled.

How to Hide Instagram Read Receipts on Android

You can easily disable Wi-Fi and turn on Airplane mode on Android devices. This will allow you to temporarily hide your read receipts on Instagram.

To hide Instagram read receipts on Android:

1. Swipe down on the screen to open the notifications area and tap Airplane mode.
2. Tap the Wi-Fi button to ensure that your phone’s Wi-Fi is off.

Once you disable Wi-Fi and put your phone in airplane mode, you can read through your Instagram messages. Read receipts won’t be sent until you reconnect to the internet.

It’s also worth noting that if you want to read their messages via the web, you can put a Chromebook in airplane mode and then read your messages.

Turn Off Instagram Message Notifications

When you tap the Instagram message notification button, it automatically triggers a read receipt. To avoid accidentally tapping message notifications, you can disable your Instagram message notifications.

To disable message notifications on Instagram:

1. Launch the Instagram app on your iPhone or Android device.
2. Tap your account icon in the lower-right corner.
3. Select the menu button in the top-right corner of the screen.
4. Tap Settings when the menu appears.
5. Select Notifications from the menu.
6. Tap Messages and Calls from the menu.
7. Now, turn off the Message Requests and Messages option.

Stopping Instagram Read Receipts

Until Instagram adds an option to turn off read receipts directly, one of the workarounds shown above will do the trick to temporarily stop them. Of course, you won’t be able to reply to any messages until you turn Wi-Fi back on and disable Airplane mode. While you can’t turn off read receipts, you can read messages offline and avoid marking them as read.

If you’re new to the service, check out some top Instagram tips and tricks to help you get the most from the service. You might also be interested in learning how to download a copy of your Instagram data. If you’re worried about your data security, don’t forget to disconnect your contacts from Instagram.

Not sure when to post? Check out the best times to publish on Instagram.