If you are one of those who leads a peaceful and calm existence within social networks, without wanting to stand out too much or give cause to talk, surely you do not want to interact with the application if the next moment we know that our contacts are going to receive a notification or, worse still, a status update indicating that we have already seen what they have written or sent to us. Why do we have to be hiding to avoid these alerts?
The double check syndrome
There is a problem that is becoming more and more widespread among many users of social networks and messaging applications that have been called “The double check syndrome” because, although we are not aware of it, we often have the need to know if someone has read what we have sent you. It is at that moment when a state of anxiety occurs that leads to thinking more than is advisable.
Five minutes have passed and you haven’t read my message? How is it possible if we are soul friends? Could he have been angry about something and that’s why he doesn’t want to read what I send him? If you have ever asked yourself these kinds of questions, or you are on your way to suffering from that little ailment typical of the digital world, or you are already doing it completely and, therefore, you should start a little therapy that works very well for many problems caused by the stress: patience.
Instagram, as you probably know, generates notifications similar to those of other social networks or messaging applications in such a way that it tells us when we read things or receive them. Luckily, it has tools to prevent that information from reaching other profiles that, we believe, does not concern anyone else. In this way, you avoid unnecessary problems with users who suffer from this double check syndrome and who are going to ask us, as soon as we see each other, why it took us so long to read one of their messages.
Privacy Matters Too
It is evident that these ailments that have been generated over the last few years from the arrival of social networks are a source of problems that we can easily fix, silencing those notifications and preventing Instagram, in this case, from telling everyone when we do things. But there is something that is above all that and it is privacy, that right that we have not to feel observed, watched and controlled by anyone who in their free time has nothing better to do than check how fast or slow we are reading. the messages we receive.
That privacy, which now seems like a privilege when it is a fundamental right, is another of the reasons that we must wield when someone asks us why we want those readings of everything that they send us in the form of messages on the social network we prefer to hide it.
Well, even at the risk of appearing suspicious of something, if you want to protect your privacy and block what others can learn about us, we are going to tell you a couple of methods to do it as quickly as possible within your mobile. Which is, surely, the device from which you connect the most to the social network owned by Meta (Facebook).
How to read messages without appearing as seen?
Next we are going to tell you how to get Instagram not to send anyone the indication that we have read one of their messages when in fact we have already done so. And to achieve this, we are going to offer you two alternatives. Behold.
Through the Instagram app
To remove those read notifications within the iOS and Android apps, you need to follow these steps:
- Verify that you have the latest version of Instagram installed on your mobile , either from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.
- Open the app.
- Tap on the icon to access your profile on the social network.
- Now click on the three horizontal lines to display a new menu with more options.
- You will see that one of them is Settings . We touch on it.
- Now within the Settings we look for the Notifications option.
- Of all that we can define, we are left with those that we will find within Calls and direct messages . We play there.
- Now we will see several options depending on the type of notifications that we want to silence, by touching the deactivation check.
- The first is for Message Requests notifications, and the second is for Messages .
From that moment on, no one will be able to see our reading activity on the social network, so everyone who interacts with us will be blocked from accessing that information.
Block mobile connections
In any case, if you only have this problem with the read message notification with certain Instagram users and profiles, and not in a generalized way, then a somewhat crude solution that works perfectly is better for you . And it consists of blocking the telephone connections at the moment of going to read what they have sent us.
To do so, simply follow these steps:
- Close the Instagram app on the phone.
- Then, if you have an iPhone, swipe down from the top right of the screen to bring up Control Center . Once inside, and as you can see in the screenshot that you have just below, click on the airplane icon.
- If you have an Android phone, swipe down from the top edge of the screen to bring up the airplane mode option. Also click on the icon.
- When airplane mode has been activated, you open Instagram again.
- Now you can read those messages that have been sent to you without fear of generating a notification to the user who has sent them.
- Once you have read everything, exit Instagram again.
- Turn off airplane mode and you’re done. There will be no trace of the activity you just performed.
