How to read Instagram messages without being seen

In today’s tutorial, you’re going to find out how to read Instagram messages without being seen.

This is, without getting that watermark and “Seen” label under your messages and thus, not letting the other person know that you’ve read their messages.

2 Ways of opening Instagram messages without being seen

In the following steps, I’m going to show you how to read Instagram messages without them being marked as read.

You don’t have to follow all the methods, just pick one and follow the guide strictly, otherwise, it wouldn’t work.

Is even possible to read an Instagram message without opening it?

Yes, and no!

By the time of writing this tutorial is not possible to read Instagram DMs without opening them.

However, it’s possible to open them and read any messages without the message being marked as seen.

We are going to use the smartphone for this.

Method 1 – Restrict the user so that you can read their messages privately

Don’t worry, you are not going to remove your Instagram followers by doing this.

If you check the official restriction documentation by Instagram, you’ll see that one of the consequences of this restriction is, literally:

If you restrict someone: They won’t be able to see when you’re online or if you’ve read their messages.

Official Instagram Help Documentation

Cool!

So even Instagram is giving us an official method to safely read DMs without letting the other person that you’ve seen them.

This is the method I recommend you to use, it works on 2022 and it will work beyond as far as the restriction feature stays.

There is no failure in this method.

How to quickly restrict users on Instagram

It’s very easy to restrict anyone on Instagram and don’t let them know that you’ve read their messages.

Just go to their Profile and:

1. Click the 3 dots menu button ···
2. Select Restrict
3. Confirm the Restriction

After that, you can safely read their Direct Message.

Take into account that after a restriction, the DM will be moved to the “Message request tab”, it won’t be on the Primary or general tab.

• Don’t forget to Unrestrict the account (step 4)after reading the message (if you want!)

As you have seen, very easy.

The only problem with this method is that if you have several messages to read from different people, it will take you a while to restrict and unrestrict them all, but it will be worth it if you don’t want to leave traces of your messages being read.

• Note I: after the restriction the message will be unread again in your inbox.
• Note II: you can’t see pictures or videos attached to the message using this method, remember that this is actually an anti-harassment feature.

Method 2 – The trick with the Airplane mode AND the logout

This second method for reading messages without applying the “seen” label is a classic, not only on Instagram but basically on any platform.

It’s a bit faster if you have several messages you want to read.

However the process is a bit more tedious, you must be more careful, and follow the steps with caution.

Besides this, this is a “bug” of the application that Instagram could fix at any time.

But until then, you can also use it to read messages without being seen if you don’t want to restrict your followers, or if they have sent you a picture or a video and you are curious about it.

All you have to do is:

1. Go to your Messages screen (Inbox), but don’t open any DM! So don’t tap on the message notification if you’ve just received one or you’ll directly open it.
2. Then turn off all the Internet connections, this is, WiFi and 4/5G. The fastest way of doing this is just turning on airplane mode.
3. Now you can open the message(s) and read it/them. As you are not connected to Internet, no “Seen” notification will be sent.
4. Important Step: when you’re done, don’t just turn on everything, or the read receipt will be generated. What you have to do is Sign out from your Instagram Account. You can do this by going to your profile > Burger Menu > Settings > Scroll to the bottom > Log Out.
5. Now, force close Instagram. This is, don’t just go to your home screen, but kill the application so it no longer runs in the background.
6. You can safely go online again! the message will not be marked as read.

As you have seen, this process is a little more meticulous but it has the advantage of allowing you to view photos and videos included in the messages, or read several messages from different people without being detected, without having to restrict them one by one.

Can you turn off seen on Instagram DM?

You can only turn off the seen label on Instagram for restricted accounts, but currently, there is no option to uncheck this option for your entire account.

What’s your favorite method for reading Instagram messages without being seen?

It’s very easy to open a DM without them knowing.

There are third-party apps that claim they are able to turn off read receipts, but I do not recommend any of them, it is better to choose one of the two methods described above.

Which one do you choose?