There's nothing wrong with wanting privacy, but you also don't want to come across as offensive by just leaving them on read. No matter what the reasons are, even if you simply don’t like feeling pressured to reply right away, knowing how to view Instagram DMs without marking them as read can help keep things easygoing.
Instagram has been the main place people use to stay connected and share life with their circle. Direct messages are intended to give you a safe space to connect comfortably with other users. That means you get to decide exactly who you want in your personal space.
This level of discretion can also prevent you from falling for scams, fraud, or phishing messages pretending to be someone you know, thus tricking you into clicking their links. But before we delve into viewing Instagram DMs secretively, take a look at our guides section for more Instagram guides.
How to view Instagram DMS without marking as read
The first neat trick some long-standing users have figured out is to use the airplane mode trick. In this method, you enable airplane mode in your phone's settings, disconnecting from both Wi-Fi and cellular data. Next, you launch Instagram and navigate to the messages you wish to view. Despite claims that messages can be read without the other user knowing, not everyone has had that same smooth ride.
There have been instances where “seen just now” appears immediately on the sender's account after the recipient reconnects to the internet. You can experiment with it if you'd like but take heed that there might be some glitches since this isn't a native Instagram feature. There's yet another method you can try, and by far, the most secure way to read their messages without them being notified. Here it is:
Open the Instagram app and visit the profile of the person who sent the message. There, you should tap the three dots located at the top right corner of their profile page to access the settings.
Choose the "Restrict" option from the settings menu. This action restricts the account and moves their chat to your message requests.
Go to your message requests to find the restricted chat. You can now read the message without the sender being notified.
Once you have read the messages and do not wish to reply or engage with the user anymore, you can put them in restricted mode as often as you like. If you wish to unrestrict them but also don't want to reply at the moment, you can revisit their profile, select the three dots, and click “unrestrict.”
Although there's already an unrestrict option shown once you read their messages in message requests, clicking "unrestrict" inside the direct messages rather than on their profile page will mark the messages as read or seen. But no matter which unrestricted method you choose, they won't know that you previously restricted their account. Since this approach is part of Instagram's functionality, there haven't been any glitches so far.
You don’t have to worry if you want to read messages from someone located in your message requests. If you're not seeing message requests on Instagram, it could be because the feature is disabled in your settings. After enabling this feature, you can filter the messages you receive and adjust additional settings, so you don’t have to restrict them one by one.
And that's all there is to know about viewing Instagram DMs without marking them as read. If you want to get the most out of your Instagram experience, check to find out why Instagram deleted your highlights and how to delete your Instagram Threads account.