Instagram is a popular image and video sharing platform owned by Facebook. On Facebook, users have the ability to “hide” their posts from certain users without having to unfriend or unblock them.
Considering Facebook owns Instagram, you would assume that Instagram offers its users the same functionality right? Well, perhaps not.
Hididing a post from someone on Instagram – Is it possible?
Although the two platforms work quite similar in a number of ways including the ability to hold private conversations with friends and followers and engaging with other users’ posts via comments and likes, they are fairly different when it comes to privacy.
In this article, we are going to look at whether you can hide posts from certain people on Instagram and other privacy considerations on the app.
The answer to this question isn’t as black and white as you’d think. While there are ways to hide posts from certain users on Instagram, it doesn’t allow you to get as granular as Facebook does – i.e to the point where you can type the names of the specific users you want to hide posts from.
Instead, you have to take a wider and bolder approach to hiding posts. which of course has its pros and cons.
In other words, its easier to go about your business in a sneaky way on Facebook compared to Instagram.
The simplest way to hide posts
The easiest way to hide posts from people on Instagram is to simply block the users who you want to hide your post from. To do this, please follow these steps:
- Log in to your Instagram account on the mobile phone app.
- Use the search button to locate the account(s) of the user(s) you wish to block.
- When on the profile of someone you’d like to block, select the three dotted icon on the top right hand side of their profile.
- From the pop up list, select ‘block’.
- On the subsequent pop up, you will be able to choose whether you want to block them and any new accounts they create, just block that specific account, or block and report them.
- Once you have made your decision, confirm it by selecting the blue block button.



Blocking someone on Instagram has more repercussions than that user no longer being able to see your posts. It will also mean they can’t follow you on the platform, interact with any posts that you are tagged or message you privately on the platform.
To them, it will be like you don’t exist on Instagram. Though they won’t get any notifications, it will be pretty easy for them to know you’ve blocked them if you’re close friends.
If you decide that this is too much of an extreme measure, then there is a softer alternative that you might want to consider.
Making your account private
Changing your privacy settings on Instagram to make your account private or locked is another solid way of being able to have an element of control over who sees your posts on the platform.
If you have a locked/private account then the only people who will be able to see your Instagram posts are people who you have accepted follow requests from.
With that in mind, if you want to hide posts from a certain person then you could simply remove them from your following list or never accept them in the first place.
To turn your account private, please follow these instructions:
- Log in to your Instagram account via the mobile phone app.
- Select your profile icon on the bottom right hand side of the screen.
- Select the three lined icon on the top right of your Instagram proifle.
- Select ‘settings’ followed by ‘privacy’.
- Simply select the sliding button next to ‘private account’ so that it is displaying as blue.
- Click back off the page to confirm the switch.
From now on, anyone who tries to follow you will have to send you a request first. However, existing followers will stay as they are.
If you want to hide posts from an existing follower then you are now going to need to remove them from your followers list. To do this, please follow these instructions:
- Log in to your Facebook profile via the mobile phone app.
- Navigate to your account profile by selecting the icon on the bottom right hand side of the home page.
- Select the followers button on the top of your profile.
- From your list of followers, select the ‘remove’ button next to the names of anyone who you want to hide content from going forward. You will need to confirm your decision on a pop up each time.
These users will now see a locked account if they try to access your profile and will need to request to follow you to regain access to your posts. This is a good way to hide posts and hide your story from anyone that isn’t following you.
Conclusion
To conclude, hiding posts from users on Instagram isn’t as straightforward as it is on Facebook. Instead, you have to use certain loopholes to try and reach your desired outcome, but for some users it can be worthwhile doing (larger beauty influencers may need to do so, for example).
We hope our suggestions in this article will help you to hide your content from people you don’t wish to share it with.