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Customizing your Instagram notifications can significantly enhance your mobile experience. It can also stop you from spending too much time on the app, especially when you never intended to open it. Here’s how I’ve customized my Instagram notifications to be less irritating.
1Turning Off All Reel Suggestions
Reels are one of Instagram’s biggest time-sucks. You’re putting yourself at a huge disadvantage if you let the app send you suggestions via your push notifications, which is why I switched these off as part of mysocial media reintegration strategy.
I’ll still see Reels when I open the Instagram app, but to be honest, I find these quite easy to ignore. Occasionally, I’ll find one that interests me—but I frankly find most of them boring.
To turn off Reel suggestions, go toSettings > Notifications > Live and reels. I recommend setting each area toOff, but if you only want to switch off Reels suggestions, switch offReels suggested for youandRecently uploaded reels.
2Enabling Quiet Mode
One big reason I deleted my old Instagram account was because I felt like I had little control over notifications. I know that many people suggest turning off everything, but to be honest, all that did was make me more inclined to open the app and check if there was anything new. After returning to the app following a year’s break, I realized I could utilizeQuiet Mode; and doing so has been a game-changer.
When Quiet Mode is activated, Instagram won’t send notifications to your device. At the end of each Quiet Mode session, you’ll see a summary if you received new interactions in the app. I don’t like that you can only enable Quiet Mode for up to 12 hours daily, but it’s better than nothing.
Ienable Quiet Modeeach weekday from 6am to 6pm. I don’t have a problem with checking notifications before bed, but I used to wake up in the middle of the night to do so. So, if this is an issue for you, I recommendpausing all of your Instagram notifications.
3Limiting Message and Comment Notifications
A significant number of comments I receive on Instagram are spam. Apart from that, a decent proportion of them are from users trying an outdated strategy where they leave pointless comments to improve their visibility or get my attention. I find both annoying and I would rather limit the comment notifications I see.
Similarly, I only really want to receive messages from people I follow. I’m happy to manually check my message requests, but I don’t want to see “Random User wants to send you a message” appear on my device.
Limiting message and comment notifications is the easiest way to control both. I turn off all message request notifications, and for comments, I set this toFrom profiles I follow. I also turn offComment daily digestandStory Comments. All of these are accessible viaPosts, stories, and comments.
It’s also possible tocontrol who can comment on your Instagram postsif you want to take things one step further.
4Disabling All Notifications Sent by Instagram
I’ll be 100% honest with you: I think every notification sent by Instagram is pointless, and I also believe you’re wasting your time if you have most of them switched on. Instagram normally sends notifications about ads, product announcements, trending places, and more. The only ones I think are worth (maybe) having on are:
I have turned every category off, and you can access these in theFrom Instagramsection of theNotificationstab. You can always experiment to see if there are any that you’d like to keep switched on, but on a personal level, I found almost all of them to be pointless.
5Turning Off Account Suggestions
While I like seeing account suggestions in the Instagram app, I only want to view them on my own terms. I don’t like receiving notifications because I won’t just go onto the app and follow one account. It almost inevitably results in going down a rabbit hole and spending at least 15 minutes on the app that I didn’t intend to.
you may turn off this notification by going toFollowing and followers > Account suggestions > Off. It’s also possible toremove Instagram follow suggestions from your feed, but I personally don’t find this a huge problem.
6Disabling Email Notifications
Instagram sends several email notification types, including offers to provide feedback and notification reminders. Support emails are the only ones I’d recommend keeping switched on; I’ve turned these on but disabled everything else.
You’ll have to scroll to the bottom of the Notifications tab and navigate toEmail notifications. While you’re here, I also suggest going intoShoppingand togglingSuggested for youoff. You can alsoget rid of annoying Instagram adsif these are a problem for you.
7Not Allowing “Live Activity” Notifications
I like having Live Activity notifications when I’ve ordered an Uber or have a food delivery on the way, but I don’t find them very useful for Instagram. The only exception is when you’re uploading a post and want to keep up with its uploading percentage to ensure it ends up on your page.
You can follow the tips in this separateguide to Live Activities on your iPhoneto turn the feature off. These steps will apply to any other apps where you don’t want this feature to appear.
I don’t recommend turning off all notifications for Instagram, and I think that doing this can cause more problems than it solves. However, controlling your notifications—and only keeping the essential ones on—is a good idea. Start by switching off suggestions, limiting messages and comments, and following the other things I’ve mentioned in this guide.
