Instagram is one of the most wildly popular social media platforms in the world. Every day, new people open their personal accounts and new businesses use influencers to sell their products through their business accounts. As a result of that, a lot of our Instagram feed tends to be filled with ads these days. The sheer excessive nature of certain ads or pages which post content every minute or people who post offensive content might make us want to block them. If you are fed up with such things on your Instagram feed and want to block some of the pages or profiles that you really don’t want to see, this post has got you covered. We will go through all the steps that you need to follow in order to block someone on Instagram. Let’s get started. 

Steps to block someone on Instagram 

You got tired of receiving all kinds of notifications, content or messages from certain users, you want to block them, but you don’t know how to. To help you with the process, we have put together these easy steps to block an account on Instagram: 

Search the user that you want to block

If the person/page you want to block is in your followers/following list, you can search within those lists. If that person contacted you through the DMs, you can find their profile over there. Or you can just use the normal Instagram search tool and type in the name of the person/page.

On their profile, tap the menu icon

When you enter their profile, you can access the menu represented by three consecutive dots that you find on the top-right side. 

Tap block

After you tap on the menu, you will see the option to “block” along with the other actions available for you to take. Just tap on that and that person/page will be blocked. 

Why would we block someone on Instagram? 

The following three scenarios are the most commonly occurring reasons for blocking a profile:

Spam

There are some profiles where the only objective is to sell and advertise through private messages and comments without your approval.

Meddling

An Instagram user that you don’t know usually comments on your photos or replies to your stories in a weird, creepy way.

Harassment

If you feel hounded by someone, a good option will be to block that person. If it persists, you could opt to report it on this same platform and get that profile removed. 

Is there any alternative to blocking an Instagram profile? 

Yes, Instagram allows you to restrict access to your profile without having to block someone completely. These are the things you can do instead of completely blocking someone:

Make your account private

Only users that you accept as followers will be able to see your profile.   

Restrict story sharing

Instagram stories can be sent through private messages, if you don’t allow it, nobody will be able to share your stories.

Filter comments

Instagram gives you an option to filter the comments made on your posts. You can choose which words can or can not appear on your posts.

Restrict Story Replies

You can choose who all can reply to your stories. You can choose between everyone, your followers, close friends or completely deactivate this option. 

How do you unblock someone on Instagram? 

You have two options available in case you want to unblock a user and interact with them again:

The first option is to search for their profile manually. Once on their page, instead of the usual option to “follow”, you will see “unblock”. Just tap it and it’s done. 

The second method requires you to access your profile settings.

Access the profile settings that you can find by clicking the three horizontal lines on the top-right side of your wall. In ‘Privacy’, go to ‘Blocked Users”.  In this section, you will find the profile you want to unblock. Just go to the profile from there and tap on “Unblock” .

In the ensuing pop up window, just select “unblock” and the user/page will be unblocked and they will be able to interact with your profile.