Without a doubt, Instagram is one of the most loved apps of meta among people. This is one of the most popular apps with 2.4 billion active users.
Instagram lets us share everything happening in our lives, especially our favorite moments with family and friends. However, the constant connection can become overwhelming, especially when it comes to worries about privacy.
Many people using social media prioritize privacy, and many stop using it to protect their privacy. As privacy concerns grow, many social media users take small steps toward protecting their privacy and ensuring the freedom to post without being monitored.
One productive way to strengthen your privacy is to hide your followers on Instagram. Apart from privacy, Instagram users are driven by several other valid reasons why they choose to keep their follower counts under wraps.
For example, you are probably a private person and might not want others to know how many followers you have. When your follower count is public, it can spark unhealthy competition with others, causing unwanted social pressure. By hiding your follower count, you can exercise more control over who can access your list of followers.
Whether you want to keep your follower count private or protect your followers' identities, there are plenty of methods to hide your Instagram followers.
In this blog, we’ll discover these methods so you can safeguard your privacy without leaving social media. It specifically addresses the question of how can I hide my followers on Instagram.
Instagram Privacy Setting
Instagram is a meta app that provides a high level of security to its users, they never compromise on the privacy of their users. Instagram privacy settings help user to protect their data and choose who can access their profile.
1. Public and Private Accounts
It is a user's choice whether they want to switch their accounts to public or private, private accounts are visible to everyone, including people who do not use Instagram.
In a public account, anyone can see your account details like your Instagram followers' active status and your public stories. They can like and comment on your posts, engage with other users on your timeline, share your posts as stories, and send you direct messages.
On the other hand, a private Instagram account is only accessible to users whose follow requests you have approved. In a private account, only your follower has this permission to see your posts, stories, reels, and videos and engage with you.
2. Activity Status
Instagram provides the option to hide your last active status from your followers. However, there's a trade-off you won’t be able to see others’ activity status if you disable your active status. You can’t have a look at others’ status activities if you hide your status.
3. Restrict Account
Many people don’t want to interact with their followers, and the only way to do this is without blocking or removing them from your profile, they go for the restrict account option, which will allow you to hide your online status. You won’t have this chaos of seeing their messages in your direct messages because they are shifted to the Message Requests inbox.
Even if you read their messages in the request inbox, they won’t be able to know this, and their comments on your posts will also be hidden.
How to Hide My Followers on Instagram?
1. Hide Your Followers: Make your Instagram Account Private
Switching your account to a private account allows you to hide your followers from the public and unwanted people. This option allows only people you approve as followers to see your posts and stories.
Following are the steps for switching your account to a private;
- Open Instagram, go to your profile and select three horizontal lines on the top.
- Select setting.
- In the Privacy section, switch on the ‘Private Account’ option, after completing these steps subsequently, only your approved followers will be able to view your posts and follower list.
2. Remove Followers from Your Followers List
Imagine you set your account to private, and new users cannot see your follower list.
There are many times when unwanted people follow you already and you don’t want to see them as your followers. Well to prevent this situation you need to remove them from your profile.
To remove users from the follower's list;
- Go to your Instagram profile, and tap on the followers list.
- Select users and click on the ‘Remove’ button in front of them.
- Tap on Remove again.
3. block users from the Followers list to hide Followers
Blocking is the best option to hide your followers from unwanted people. The block users won’t be able to reach your account, send you a follow request, or even send you direct messages.
To block specific users;
- Select the user profile. Select the top three dots at the top right.
- Tap on the block option.
- Click this option again to confirm the block.
Pros and Cons of Hiding Your Followers on Instagram
Pros
- Remove unwanted users, and protect your privacy and your followers' privacy as well.
- It gives you more control over the information you share online.
Cons
- Hiding your followers and removing them can reduce your engagement with people.
- Hiding your followers can also impact your visibility.
Frequently Asked Question
1. Why I can’t see someone’s followers on Instagram if I follow them?
If you can’t be able to see someone’s followers on their Instagram, it might be possible their account is private, and they don’t approve you as their follower.
2. Can someone who is not a follower see my Instagram?
The visibility of posts is determined by the account's privacy settings. For private accounts: Only your approved followers can see your posts. For public accounts: Anyone on Instagram can access your posts.
3. What is a ghost Follower?
Ghost followers also known as ghosts, ghost accounts, or lurkers, are users on social media platforms who remain inactive or do not engage in activity.