How to turn off the new Instagram Last Seen feature

Social media already has all our friends knowing what we’re doing, where we are, who we are with and everything in between. Enter - Instagram last seen feature on Direct; however, there is a way to fix it.

Here’s how you can turn off the Instagram last seen feature.

First off, I call it ‘last seen’ because as you must have experienced during the early days of WhatsApp, a similar feature proved to be the catalyst for awkward confrontations and failed attempts at ignoring unwanted conversations. Sure, WhatsApp went a step ahead and made it worse with the Blue Tick but they did offer the ability for users to turn off both, the last seen and the Blue Tick.

The same applies to the Instagram last seen feature which the company has activated by default, but you can turn it off if you choose to keep your activities just a little bit private.

People who you follow are the only ones who can see your Instagram activity status, so that renders the controls in your hands to begin with. Secondly, if you do not wish to share this information with anyone whatsoever, you can turn it off by visiting Settings tab on your Instagram account.

Scroll down until you spot a setting that says, ‘Show Activity Status’ and an option to toggle the feature off.

There you go. It’s done.

Rather simple wouldn’t you say?

Although, Instagram demands a similar recompense as it’s IM cousin, WhatsApp. If you turn your Instagram last seen off, you cannot view other’s activity status either.

Fair enough right?

Unlike WhatsApp and now Instagram, Facebook Messenger does not allow users to turn their activity status off which is kind of a bummer, but hey nobody’s perfect!