How To Silence Instagram Posts and Stories Without Unfollowing

Instagram is a popular social network, and sometimes users might want to mute someone’s profile to avoid seeing their posts or stories without actually unfollowing. It’s kind of weird, but sometimes you’re just not feeling the constant updates from certain contacts, especially those with overly active or boring stories. Luckily, the process is pretty straightforward, and you can do it directly from different parts of the app—whether it’s their profile, a feed post, or stories. This way, you keep your feed clean and avoid social awkwardness while still keeping them as a follower. No notifications get sent out when you mute someone, so it’s pretty discreet. Here’s a detailed walkthrough.

How to mute someone on Instagram

Through the profile

First off, if you’re already on someone’s profile and decide you want to mute their content, you’re in luck. This is probably the fastest method. The reason this helps is because sometimes their profile has a ton of posts and stories, and muting right from their profile lets you quickly clean up your feed. It applies if you’re tired of seeing their updates but don’t want to unfollow them, which might be awkward. Expect that when you do this, their posts and stories will no longer show up in your feed or stories bar, at least for now.

• Open the person’s profile page. It’s that little magnifying glass icon, then search or tap on their profile if you’re already following them.
• Tap on Following (it’s usually next to the “Message” button).
• In the menu that pops up, tap Mute.
• Now, toggle on Publications or Stories depending on what you want to mute. You can mute just posts, just stories, or both. Make sure to turn on the options accordingly.

Important: Instagram doesn’t notify the person that you’ve muted them. To re-enable, just go back into their profile, tap Following, then Mute, and turn off the options.

Via a feed post

If you’re scrolling through your feed and see a post from someone you’d like to mute, this method is better. It helps because sometimes you’re just sick of seeing certain posts or stories from a person without stopping to visit their profile. Muting from a post is useful if their posts or stories are annoying or repetitive. Expect that after muting, their posts or stories won’t pop up in your feed or stories list anymore—that’s the goal.

• Tap the three dots icon at the top of the particular post or story, which is usually in the upper-right corner.
• Select Mute from the menu that appears.
• Choose whether to mute Posts or Posts and Stories depending on your preference. Sometimes muting posts alone is enough if their stories are still making noise.

Remember, Instagram keeps it silent—no noticeable notification goes to them. To see their posts again, visit their profile and disable the muting options. That’s how you regain full visibility.

Through stories

This method is a bit more casual. If you’re just watching stories and find one from a user you’d rather skip entirely, muting stories on their profile is quick. It’s kind of weird, but it really cuts down the clutter. The nice part is, if you don’t want to see their stories for a while but want to keep following, this is a simple way. Again, no notifications get sent out, so it remains discreet. Expect that their stories won’t pop up in your stories bar until you manually turn the mute off again.

• In the Stories row at the top of the app, tap and hold on the story circle of the user you want to mute.
• A menu pops up—tap Mute.
• Choose Mute Stories or Mute Stories and Posts depending on what you want to hide. Sometimes muting stories alone is enough if their posts are still okay.

On some setups, muting stories temporarily fails the first time and then works after toggling the options or reloading the app. It’s kind of annoying, but once it sticks, you’ll stop seeing their stories until you disable the mute.

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