How to Stop Instagram Notifications for a Single Person

The short version: Open their profile, tap the three dots, choose Mute, then select Posts, Story, or Notes separately, because Instagram treats each one as its own switch. It takes under a minute, they get no alert, and you can reverse it any time from the same menu.

Instagram does not have one tidy "mute notifications from this person" toggle. It splits muting into three or four separate decisions, and most people only find the first one and assume they have done the job. They have not.

The actual steps, in order

Here is the full process, because half-muting someone is the most common mistake I see people make.

• Go to their profile (search their username or tap their name wherever it appears).
• Tap the three dots in the top right corner.
• Tap Mute.
• You will see options for Posts, Story, and sometimes Notes if they use that feature.
• Toggle on whichever ones are flooding your phone. You can tick all three at once or just one.

If you only mute Posts, their Stories will still ping you. If you only mute Story, their Reels and feed posts still land in your notifications. This is the bit that catches people out, because they do the first bit, think it is sorted, then get annoyed two weeks later when a Story notification pops up anyway.

A worked example

Say you run a small online shop and a former colleague posts eight to ten Stories a day, every day, mostly gym selfies and coffee cups. You like her, you do not want to unfollow her, but your phone buzzes every twenty minutes between 7am and 11pm. You open her profile, tap the three dots, tap Mute, and switch on both Posts and Story. From that point on, her content still sits in your feed if you go looking for it, but it stops interrupting your afternoon. Nothing on her side changes. She still sees you as a follower, your like history stays intact, and there is no indicator anywhere on her account that you have done this.

What muting does not do

This is the part most guides skate past. Muting someone does not stop their DMs, it does not stop them tagging you in other people's posts, and it does not stop notifications if someone else comments on a post the two of you are both tagged in. It also will not stop them from seeing your Stories or activity, because muting is entirely one-directional and entirely on your side. If the real problem is that you do not want them seeing what you post, muting is the wrong tool. You would need to restrict them, remove them from your Close Friends list, or block them outright, all of which are different conversations with different consequences.

Why the "unfollow instead" advice is bad for most people

Plenty of articles on this topic will tell you to just unfollow or restrict someone if their notifications bother you. I think that advice ignores how most people use Instagram. You might still want to see a cousin's baby photos or a former client's business updates without wanting a notification every time they post a Reel. Unfollowing severs the connection entirely and, depending on your settings, can look pointed if they ever check their follower list. Muting is the only option that keeps the relationship exactly as it was publicly while quietly dialling down the noise on your end. It is a one-way mirror, not a wall.

Muting via a specific post or comment

If you are getting notified because of a specific thread rather than general posting, you have other routes in. Tap the comment that keeps generating replies, tap the three dots next to it, and you can mute that thread specifically. For DMs, open the chat, tap the person's name at the top, and there is a separate mute option just for messages. These are worth knowing because someone might not be an over-poster generally, but one particular post or group chat is the actual source of the constant buzzing.

Settings level notification control

If muting one person at a time feels like whack-a-mole because several people are a problem, go broader. In your own profile, tap the menu, go to Settings and Privacy, then Notifications. From there you can turn off Story and Live notifications entirely, or push notifications for likes, comments, and follows down to "from people you follow" only rather than everyone. This will not target one specific person, but it cuts the overall volume so individual mutes matter less.

A quick check on whether muting is what you need

Before you go through the steps, ask yourself what is bothering you. If it is volume of notifications, mute Posts and Story and be done with it. If it is that you do not want them to know what you are up to, that is a different problem and muting will not touch it, because as I mentioned, muting is entirely invisible and entirely one-sided. If the issue is that you find yourself checking their profile obsessively, consider whether deactivating your own account temporarily, even for a weekend, might do more for your head than fiddling with one person's settings.

What they will and will not know

I want to be blunt about this because it is the question everyone wants answered and most articles bury it. They will never know you have muted them. There is no label, no greyed-out icon, no notification sent to them, nothing in their activity log. The only theoretical way someone could work it out is if they notice you stop engaging with their content as quickly or as often as before, and even that is a weak signal most people never clock. Compare this to something like removing someone from Close Friends, which again sends no alert but can be inferred over time if they notice they stop seeing your Close Friends Stories. Muting leaves even less of a trail than that.

Checking who you have already muted

Go to Settings and Privacy, then Muted Accounts, and you will see two lists: Posts and Stories. It is worth checking this occasionally, because people mute someone during a stressful week and then forget, and six months later wonder why they never see a particular friend's updates in their feed anymore. Unmuting is the same three-dot menu, same toggle, just switched off.

If you are trying to get your notifications under control more broadly and this is one symptom of a bigger problem with how much time Instagram eats out of your day, it is worth treating the muting as a small fix within a larger habit change rather than the whole solution.

Frequently asked questions

Does Instagram tell someone when you mute them?

No. Muting sends no notification, no label, and no visible change to the other person's account or activity. It is entirely private on your end.

Can I mute someone's Stories but still see their posts in my feed?

Yes. Posts and Story are separate toggles in the Mute menu, so you can switch off Story notifications while leaving Posts notifications on, or the other way round.

Will muting someone stop their DMs from notifying me?

No. Muting a profile only affects Posts, Story, and Notes. To stop message notifications from one person, open the chat, tap their name, and mute that conversation separately.

What is the difference between muting and restricting someone on Instagram?

Muting only changes what you see and hear from them. Restricting changes what they can do on your content, such as hiding their comments from others and limiting their visibility of your activity status.