How to Turn Off Active Status on Instagram, and What the Other Side Sees

One switch hides the green dot and the "Active 5m ago" line. It works both ways, though: turn yours off and everyone else's disappears for you too.

Updated October 2026

How do you hide when you were last active on Instagram?

The setting lives under messaging, because that's where the status is shown. In the Instagram app as of October 2026:

• Go to your profile and tap the three-line menu in the top right.
• Tap Settings and activity.
• Under How others can interact with you, tap Messages and story replies.
• Tap Show activity status.
• Turn off Show activity status. If you also see Show when you're active together, turn that off too, so people in the same chat don't see that you're both there.

On a computer

On instagram.com, click More at the bottom left, then Settings. Under How others can interact with you, click Messages and story replies, then Show activity status, and toggle it off. The setting syncs to the account, so it applies on your phone as well.

If you can't find it

Instagram moves menu items between app versions. Open Settings and activity and type activity status into the search bar at the top; the result goes straight to the switch.

If I turn off activity status, can I see others' status?

No. This is the rule most people discover after they've already flipped the switch. Instagram's Help Center is explicit that with your status off, you won't see when accounts that follow you or that you message are active, and you won't see anyone else's activity status.

In practice, the green dots in your inbox disappear and the "Active" lines under names in chats go blank. Turn your own status back on and theirs come back.

There's no setting that lets you see others while staying hidden yourself, and apps that promise it would need your login to try, which is a risk to the account that no amount of privacy is worth.

Does turning off active status hide you in DMs?

It hides when you're online. It doesn't hide that you've read a message.

Read receipts are a separate feature. When you open a chat, the other person can see "Seen" under their message unless read receipts are turned off for that chat or for your account. Instagram added controls for read receipts in the same messaging settings area, and they work independently of activity status; how to turn off read receipts on Instagram walks through both the account-wide and per-chat switch.

Typing indicators also stay. If you start typing a reply in an open chat, the other person can still see that you're typing.

So the honest summary is: activity status off means nobody sees when you're around, but the moment you interact with a chat, the chat itself can still show it.

Why does my activity status still show?

If someone tells you they can still see you as active after you switched it off, one of these is usually the reason:

• The change was made on a different account. Each Instagram account has its own setting, including accounts you switch between in the same app.
• Show when you're active together is still on. That second toggle controls whether people in the same open chat see that you're both there.
• The app hasn't refreshed. Close Instagram completely, or update it, and check the setting again.
• It's not Instagram. Facebook and Messenger have their own active status settings, so a green dot there is controlled separately.

Does Instagram show active status to people you don't follow?

Only if you've messaged them. Instagram's rule is that the accounts you follow and anyone you've sent a direct message to can see when you were last active. An account that follows you but that you don't follow back, and that you've never messaged, isn't on that list.

That has two consequences worth knowing. Unfollowing someone removes your status from their view, unless you've had a conversation. And a public account with thousands of followers doesn't broadcast its online status to all of them: activity status was designed for conversations, not audiences.

If what you want is to limit what someone sees more broadly, the related controls are covered in how to hide who you follow on Instagram and in Instagram's Restrict feature, explained in how to know if someone restricted you on Instagram.

Should you turn activity status off?

It depends on what you use DMs for. For a personal account, turning it off removes the small social pressure of being seen online and not replying, at the cost of not seeing when friends are around. If it's where you are rather than when you're online that you'd rather keep quiet, how to turn off location on Instagram covers the Map and location tags.

For a creator or business account, there's a stronger case for leaving it on. A visible "Active now" tells a customer or collaborator that a reply is likely soon, which is useful in sales and support conversations.

Either way, activity status is invisible to the people who matter most to a public account's growth: visitors who don't follow you yet. They judge your profile by its posts and its numbers, never by a green dot. What profile visitors look at first, and what Instagram tells the owner about them, is covered in can people see if you view their Instagram. If the follower count is the number you'd like to move, Instagram followers add to it using only your public handle, never your password, and every Instagram service is on the Instagram page.

Questions people ask about Instagram activity status