Instagram ‘limits’ adds a mute button for everyone except close friends

Instagram is expanding “limits,” a security control you can use to hide direct messages and comments from accounts that may be harassing you. Now, instead of just hiding content from recent followers or people who don’t follow you, Instagram will mute incoming messages from everyone except users on your close friends list.

While Instagram has implemented limits to help creators deal with harassment campaigns, anyone can use the feature if they’re experiencing unwanted messages and comments from bullies and other bad actors. It could be a way to stop incoming noise without disconnecting people from a supportive community.

By limiting interactions from everyone except close friends, you’ll only see direct messages, tags, and mentions from people on your list. Users who aren’t on your Close Friends list will still be able to interact with your posts, but you won’t see these updates. These accounts also won’t know that you’ve hidden their content. You can also choose to view or ignore limited comments and DMs.

Instagram allows you to limit accounts for up to four weeks at a time, but you can extend this period. You can turn on limits by tapping your profile, selecting the hamburger menu in the top right corner of the screen, and choosing Limited interactions. From there, you can enable limits for Accounts that are not following you, Recent Followersor Everyone but your closest friends.

Instagram is also developing its restriction feature, which now allows you to prevent a user from tagging or mentioning you, as well as hiding your comments. These expanded features come as Instagram faces increasing scrutiny from the US government over the safety of its young users. Earlier this year, Meta launched a new feature that prevents adults from messaging minors on Instagram and Facebook by default. The company also began hiding content about suicide and eating disorders among teenagers on both platforms.