If you’ve been an Instagram user for a while, you might know how direct message works. You send a message to somebody’s account, and they can do the same to you. Once you read the message, it’ll be marked with ‘Seen’ status, which gives the information straight to the sender as well.
However, this feature often conflicts with us. Depending on the message length, we’ll need some time to fully understand it before actually giving a reply. This “thinking time’, which is indicated by the ‘Seen’ status, may give the sender some speculations. The message that hasn’t been replied to, although it has already been seen, might indicate that you’re feeling unenthusiastic about the sender. It might give a wrong idea.
So, the answer to how to turn off read receipts on Instagram is desperately needed.
Can You Turn Off Read Receipts on Instagram
Of course! You might eliminate this issue in multiple ways. You can either use the basic function of Instagram and smartphone or use the third-party app to do so.
Other chatting applications, like Whatsapp, do have a feature to turn off the read receipts. Instagram, however, doesn’t have such a thing. So, you’ll be left with the indirect methods you need to do to somehow bypass this.
How to Turn Off Read Receipts on Instagram Effectively
So, how to turn off seen on Instagram? Let’s go straight to the first method.
Method 1: Turn Off Seen Instagram via Reading in Airplane Mode
The first easy method to turn off read receipts Instagram is by activating the airplane mode when you want to open a message. By turning the mode on, you’ll basically go offline.
So, how to turn off read receipts on ig? The answer would be just going offline; anyone can’t see you or reach you this way.
To use the method effectively, you can manually disconnect your phone from the Wifi connection. So, do the settings and deactivate the connection. Here’s the detailed instruction:
Step 1: Open Instagram, and select Messenger.

Step 2: After you’re inside the message box, slide down your phone to open the notification tray or panel.
Step 3: Right from the panel. turn the airplane mode on by clicking the icon.

Step 4: Right after that, open the inbox to see the messages.

Method 2: Read The Messages Through The Notifications
The next method to turn the Instagram read receipts off is actually very easy; just look at the notifications that appear on your cellphone screen. If you are the latest Android user, then you can expand the message content in the notification until all messages you just received on Instagram are read. This can also be done on iPhone devices.

If the Instagram message or DM is no longer in the notification, the way to do it is to view the notification history or notification log, which you can see for yourself in your cellphone settings.
And if there is no menu, you can download and install the notification log application in the App Store or Play Store. So, how to turn read receipts off on Instagram? Better through watching it through notification.
Method 3: Use Restrict Feature to Turn Off Read Receipts on Instagram
Limiting the Instagram account of the sender of the message can also be used to turn off seen Instagram. Because of this limitation feature, DM read reports will be turned off.
Here’s how to read Instagram DMs without getting caught:
Step 1: Run the Instagram application.
Step 2: Visit the DM sender’s IG profile.
Step 3: Press the three dots in the top corner to open the menu. Next, select the Restrict option. Press the Limit Account button, and you’re done.

Now you can open DMs without worrying about the sender, knowing that you’ve read them. As a side note, this limit feature is different from blocking, so they can still see posts as usual. So, you don’t have to worry about that.
Method 4: Disable Show Activity Status to Turn Off Read Receipts
Generally, someone will know when the last time you used Instagram is on the Direct Message icon. By turning off last seen automatically, no one can peek at your activity. On the other hand, you also can’t know the activities of your friends. And this is often seen to be one of the easiest ways how to turn seen off on Instagram dms.
First, open the Instagram application on your smartphone, log in using the account that will be deactivated last seen, and do the steps below:
Step 1: Open your Instagram profile and go to settings at the very top right.
Step 2: Select the Privacy icon “Show Activity Status”.

Step 3: Change the setting to off.
After you deactivate, other accounts cannot see the last time you were active on Instagram.
Method 5: How to Turn Off Read Receipts on Instagram with Third-Party Tool
You can also turn the read receipts Instagram off by using the third-party tool as well. One of the apps that might work best for you is DMpro. This tool will manage your message and present all the crucial information on the dashboard. To start the process, you need to link the Dms to the email for you to be able to watch them from outside Instagram.

When you receive a message, it’ll be shown through the DMpro’s dashboard. So, instead of reading it on the app, you can read it through the app’s dashboard, which is so easy.
As long as you don’t open the DM on Instagram, the messages won’t be marked as Seen.
Conclusion
And those are the best methods on how to turn off seen on ig you can try yourself. Amongst the five methods above, we’d like to pick the first method, which is turning the airplane mode on before opening a message. It won’t take too much time, and you don’t have to install anything to prevent the ‘Seen’ status.
But that’s only our recommendation. So, pick one method you think is the best one that fits you the best.