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How to Unread Messages on Instagram for Android and iPhone

Unread Instagram messages
4 minutes read

There are several ways to unread messages on Instagram. The easiest one supported by Instagram is by using an Instagram Business account. But, if you have a Personal account, you can apply the hacks shown in this article to know how to unread messages on Instagram. Below are the steps to follow.

#1 How to Unread Messages on Instagram Using an Instagram Business Account

Learn how to unread messages on Instagram if you have an Instagram Business account. To mark Instagram messages as unread:

  1. Go to the message you want to mark as unread, Swipe to the left and it will pop up options. Select “Mark as unread”.
  2. Android users can mark the message as unread by:
  3. Finding the chat message you want to appear as unread. Tap and hold the chat for a few seconds. This will pop up options. Select “Mark as Unread”.

A blue dot will appear on the chat showing that the message is unread. So that is how to mark Instagram messages as unread. Your Instagram Homepage will display the number of unread messages on the top right.

The method marks the messages as unread, but not unseen, thus they will still show as “Seen” to the sender. The goal of using this method is to come back and read the messages later.

This option is not yet available on the desktop version.

How to unread messages on Instagram
How to unread messages on Instagram using an Instagram Professional account

How to Convert an Instagram Personal account to a Business account

To convert an Instagram Personal account to a Business account:

  1. Go to the Instagram Homepage then tap Settings>Account>”Switch To Professional Account”.
  2. From the pop up options of “Creator/Business”, select “Business”.

Note that after switching to a Business account, your account will no longer be private.

Steps to convert Instagram Personal account to a Professional account
Steps to convert an Instagram Personal account to a Professional account
Steps to convert Instagram Personal account to a Professional account
Steps to convert an Instagram Personal account to a Professional account

#2 How to Unread Messages on Instagram by Restrict Account

If you restrict an account on Instagram, the messages from the restricted account appear as message requests. Even if you read those messages, they won’t appear as read to both you and the sender.

To restrict an Instagram account:

  1. Open the account you want to restrict by tapping on the three dots icon on the top right corner of the screen
  2. From the menu pop up, tap on “Restrict”.

Restricting an account will prevent you from messaging the other account until you un restrict it. It is also not possible to see photos and videos in the messages sent by the restricted account.

How to Restrict an account on Instagram

#3 Prevent Marking Messages on Instagram as Read by Turning Off Internet

In this section, I will show you how to unread messages on Instagram on both Android and iOS by turning off your internet. You can view the messages without having them marked as seen by turning off the internet and following the steps below:

  1. Go to the Instagram messages inbox but don’t open the message you want to view. Also avoid tapping on message notifications which will open the message and mark it as seen.
  2. Turn off internet by putting your phone on airplane mode.
  3. Now tap the message to view its contents.
  4. After viewing the message, log out from your account.
  5. To logout from Instagram, iPhone users will go to settings>log out. Android users will go to settings>apps>Instagram> then select “Force Stop”. This ensures that the app stops running in the background.
  6. Turn off airplane mode and the Instagram messages will remain unread.

#4 Categorize Messages for Selective Reading

This method prevents you from opening messages that are not your priority. Instagram has two tabs, “Primary” and “General”.

The “Primary” tab contains messages that are more important to you. When a person in this list sends you a message, you receive a notification and you can check immediately.

The “General” tab contains messages that are not important to reply to or view immediately. By putting a conversation here, you never receive notifications from the sender. You can thus check these messages when you feel like.

Categorizing messages on Instagram – Primary, General

I hope you found this article useful. Tell me your experience in the comments section below.

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Written by Editorial Team

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