Instagram has gone through many different layers of evolution since it became one of the major social media platforms for users throughout the world. Through those many different changes and updates, it also developed several security features and options to make people on the website feel more comfortable and safe. Restricting people was one of those options, but it also has its cons. You for example will not be able to tell when and if someone restricts you. This article, therefore, can teach you how to know if someone restricted you on Instagram.
In addition to including a guide on how you can figure out when someone has used the restricted feature on you, this will include information about the feature, how it works, what it entails, and ways in which you can work out if someone has restricted you from their account.
Before we start on our guide and details about the feature, if you are interested there are plenty of previous guides we have done including; how to delete someones Instagram, how to unread messages on Instagram, how to delete one picture out of multiple on Instagram that you can check out.
How to know if someone restricted you on Instagram
At this point it might be already clear that you do not receive a notification when you get restricted by someone, which is to say, you have to figure it out yourself. There are a few ways in which it can become clear that someone has restricted you on Instagram.
Meanwhile, there can also be times when it’s not so clear, where you are left guessing on whether it’s their general behavior on the app or if it’s the result of your being restricted. An easy example to understand here is that if you are restricted by someone, you are unable to see their activity status on the app, however, some options allow people to turn off their activity status in general too.
Therefore, if you are confused and unclear about your account status concerning another account, check it through these methods. Keep in mind that it’s important that you either have a secondary account or a friend/family member’s account with that person’s account on it to use the following methods.
Check your comments from another account
The first method is checking if your comments on their account show to other people or not. Often your comments get hidden among a bunch of other comments on a post or a glitch etc. however you can make a detection that can help you figure out if it’s a common Instagram issue or a sign of you being restricted.
Check whether your comment from your account shows on the person’s post, via your secondary account. No matter who’s secondary account it is, if they are following the person in question, they should be able to see the comments on that person’s post easily. If your comment does not show to another account, it means you are most likely restricted from their account.
Check their activity status
Another option you can go for here is to check the activity status of the person who you think might have restricted you. Here keep in mind that your activity status of when you last used the app and whether you are currently online, should be switched on. If it isn’t you will not be able to see others’ status either. After switching it on, if you don’t see any status, check the status from the secondary account once again. If you see it online or when they were last active, using the secondary account, it means yours could be restricted. Either that, your secondary account is restricted, or they have their activity status switched off, entirely.
This is a good option to go for just in case it gives you the right answer, you can make sure of what you think by checking if a secondary account can see the activity status and confirm your doubts.
Send a message from both accounts
Lastly, send a message from both your primary account and the secondary account you chose. The jury is still out on this one for a valid reason, but it’s still worth a shot. The way it is a little wobbly is people could simply be taking time away from their Instagram account and not responding to any people at all. However, you can know if that’s not the case, and you are restricted when you message them from both accounts and just don’t get a response on your primary account.
When you are restricted, your dm goes into an account’s message requests, which not everyone fishes through that regularly, making them miss your message. However, for this too if you do not get a response on both accounts, it could mean any of the reasons we stated previously.
This is the end of our guide on how to know if someone restricted you on Instagram. It is not a fool-proof plan but it is something better than directly reaching out to know whether you are restricted and having that awkward conversation or worse, living with the frustration of not knowing whether you are being avoided naturally or on purpose.
The Restrict Feature
Launched in 2019, the ‘restrict’ feature introduced by Instagram was to ensure people have the option to opt-out of engaging with an account they don’t feel comfortable or safe with. Since then, the platform has introduced many new features and policy measures to make it more secure and provide users with the options to take action and ask for help when they need it.
But the ‘restrict’ feature laid the groundwork for many of those measures to come in the future. If you have different, varied barriers to your account that stop people from reaching you directly unless you want to, it’s all a part of the extended security policy and features. When dm and private messages on Instagram first came out, they were as basic as they could be with people getting to send each other private messages in chats, without options to create groups, send people posts from different Instagram accounts, and all the other features that chats have now.
Now people cannot send you direct messages unless you follow them back, when they do, their messages get barred from entering your direct inbox unless you allow them from ‘message requests’. For the restricting feature in specific, the pros and cons lie in whether you are the one restricting or getting restricted. Usually getting restricted means you are unable to send account messages, see their posts appear on your feed, see their account status and such common features on the platform.
