Have you ever opened a message on Instagram when you don’t have time to reply and meant to return to it later – only to forget completely?
Leaving a user on ‘read’ is considered a slight in the world of Instagram and can leave the sender wondering why you have opened their message and failed to reply.
Often, the best thing to do is to leave the message unread until you have time to sit down and reply properly. But what if you miss something important?
While it is not possible to mark a message as unread on a personal account, business and creator accounts can “unsee” a message – reminding them to reply at a later date.
Here’s how to do it…
How to Mark a Message As Unread From a Business or Creator Account
- Open your messages inbox by clicking on the paper airplane icon in the top right hand corner of your home screen
- Open to read the new messages on one or more chats
- When you’re ready to mark them as unread again, click on the three dots next to your username at the top of the screen. Click ‘Select Chats’
- Select all of the chats that you want to mark as unread, by ticking the circle to the left of their name
- Select ‘More’ at the bottom of the screen, and click ‘Mark as Unread’
This will return the message to a bold font, indicating to you that the message still needs to be opened and responded to accordingly.
It is crucial to note that even following these steps will not undo the “Seen” message that the sender will get. So, they will know that you have opened the message at least once.
For this reason, many business and creator accounts set up an automatic response to any DM’s they receive, saying thank you for the message and that they will be in touch with a response soon. This helps to manage expectations and maintain good relationships with customers and followers.
How To Open a Message Without It Being “Seen”
If you have a personal, business, or creator account and want to open a message without it being marked as “Seen” in the eyes of the sender, then here’s a quick hack to grant you secret access to messages without the activity being tracked.
Navigate to your messages inbox and find the chat that you want to open secretly.
Using your device’s shortcuts menu, turn your phone or device onto airplane mode before opening the chat. Read the message, then close Instagram completely.
Restore your phone to full connection. Now, if you head back into your inbox, you will see that the message is still bold as if it was never opened.
This is because the lack of connection prevents Instagram from tracking the activity, so the app doesn’t know that you opened the message at all.
You can now open and respond to the message in your own time – or of course ignore it!
So, while it may not be possible to unread a message on Instagram from a personal account, and while the sender may be able to see that you’ve read a message on your business account even if you mark it as unread, there are still things you can do to hide your activity. We hope this helps!
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