Posting something online and then deleting it completely is very difficult. People’s information is also public on the web the moment it is posted somewhere. You still have the option of deciding what to share, and with whom, on your social profiles. In this post, we’ll look at how to determine if someone has restricted you on Instagram or if one of your close friends has restricted you.
The privacy policies and features of social media platforms offer extensive protection to their users despite their highly public nature. A lot of the features on Instagram are intended to protect its users, ranging from the possibility of holding a private account to blocking and restricting others.
Read this article to learn more about these privacy features, including how to see if someone has restricted you on Instagram.
What does restrict mean on Instagram?
Are there any friends that constantly send you messages that you don’t like? It may be that they post a lot on your home page and you don’t like seeing them constantly?
It may be best to restrict them if you don’t want to unfollow or block them too harshly.
The restriction allows you to accomplish exactly what you’re thinking, it limits someone’s interactions with you. Having an account restricted will change a few things, starting with the fact that their posts and stories will not appear on your home page.
While they will still be able to see your activity, as usual, they will be unable to see any comments they make on your posts.
Your tag tab on your profile will not be public if they tag you in a post.
Last but not least, you will not see their messages in your main inbox, but in the Request section, where you will see them without their Seen tag, and decide whether to accept or decline them.
How to know if someone has restricted you on Instagram
Considering the restriction’s whole purpose is to separate you from the restricted person, letting them know about it would make little sense. You will still be able to see the restricted person’s posts and stories since this feature is one-sided.
In this same article, you will find a few hints on how to notice if someone has blocked you.
In case you are interested in finding out if you are restricted, there are some tricks you can use. The restriction maker will always be protected by Instagram, so figuring it out won’t be easy.
Activity status: if you can see their activity status, meaning if they are active at the moment, from the other account but not from your own, you are restricted.
Comments: the previous tip will only work with people who have the activity status available for all their followers, so you may want to double-check even if the status doesn’t appear on any of the accounts. You will notice that you are restricted if you previously commented on a post and it doesn’t show, even though it wasn’t deleted by any of the parties.
Messages: you can try to send them a direct message from the account you are using, if they see it and even respond to it, you are probably restricted at the moment.
How to restrict someone
Using restricting instead of blocking is a useful alternative, so if you’re considering restricting someone on Instagram, here’s how:
- Go to Instagram.
- After logging into your account, go to the profile of the person you want to restrict. Your inbox or the searching tab are both good places to look for it.
- In the top right corner, tap the three-dot icon.
- Choose the Restrict option from the menu that appears regarding the profile.
- Confirm that you want to restrict them.
- They will notify you that the account is now restricted. You can either dismiss the message or tap on Learn more to know more about the feature.
How to unrestrict someone
If you stop being annoyed by their interactions, you can unrestrict any account at any time. You just need to do the following:
- If you have restricted an account on Instagram, find it by opening it.
- The profile will indicate they are currently restricted when you open it.
- As you did when you restricted them, click the three-dot icon.
- Tap on Unrestrict.
- Now the profile will interact with you as usual.
How to know if someone blocked you on Instagram
When someone blocks you on Instagram, there are a lot of hints to notice, especially if they used to interact a lot. The first thing you’ll notice is that you won’t be able to see their activity, whether they are posting, posting stories, tags on mutual accounts, or liking or commenting on mutual accounts.
You will still be able to see any conversations with them in your direct messages, but as if they were with a profile that is no longer available. Your message will never be delivered, nor will it be seen, if you send it.
How to block someone on Instagram
The method to block someone is very similar to restricting them, it won’t take you more than five minutes to do the following steps:
- Go to Instagram and enter your account.
- Open the profile of the person you want to block.
- Tap on the three-dot icon that is in the top corner of your screen.
- On this menu, select Block.
- Choose if you want to block only this account or also the ones that are related to this user.
- Confirm that you want to block them. You can tap on Block and report instead if you feel threatened by this person, or if they spread offensive content.
- Once they are blocked, you won’t be able to see their posts, their followers, or the profiles they follow.
Block vs Restrict
In comparison to blocking, restricting only limits one of the participants while blocking cuts off all communication between the two.
The other person will see your account as completely lost when you block them, but they will still be able to interact with you if you only restrict them.
The two features also share some similarities. We have already mentioned that blocking and restricting are not permanent measures and that the other person will be notified if their account has been blocked or restricted.
Conclusions
This article aims to give you an understanding of how to identify if someone has restricted your Instagram account.
As we use online services every day, it is very useful to know what privacy measures they offer. For this reason, we created an article you can use as a guide.
Knowing how to detect if someone is restricting or blocking you, as well as how to use them, can help you use them responsibly.