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How to Mute Someone on Instagram (Without Unfollowing)

Updated June 2026

Sometimes you don't want to unfollow someone — a friend, a relative, a coworker — you just don't want their content filling your feed. Mute is built for exactly that. It's silent, reversible, and they never find out.

What mute does

Muting hides someone's posts, their stories, or both, from your feed and story bar. You stay following them, they stay your follower, and there's no notification. Nothing changes on their end — they just stop appearing on yours.

How to mute someone

1. From their profile: tap Following → Mute → toggle Posts and/or Stories.
2. From a story: press and hold their story circle → Mute.
3. From the feed: tap the ··· on a post → Mute.

How to unmute

Go to Settings → Muted accounts (or their profile → Following → Mute) and toggle it back on. Just as quiet as muting.

Mute vs unfollow vs restrict

• Mute: you stop seeing them, still following. No one's notified.
• Unfollow: you stop following entirely — affects your following count and ratio.
• Restrict: limits their interaction with you (see restrict vs block).

Mute is the gentlest of the three — perfect for "love you, but I don't need 12 stories a day."

When unfollowing is the better call

If you're trying to clean up your following count or your ratio, muting won't help — you're still following them. For that, unfollow the accounts that don't add value (start with non-followers via UnfollowScan, no login), and see our cleanup guide for the safe routine.