What Is Quiet Mode on Instagram? How it works and how to use it

While computers are designed to be “always-on” and plugged in to the online world, we humans are not. Making it a habit of disconnecting from our digital lives can be a very healthy step towards reducing screen time and promoting digital wellbeing.

It simply isn’t necessary or healthy for us to keep up with our digital lives 24×7, and the constant pings and alerts from our apps can keep us alert when we need to rest and distract us from more important tasks when we need to focus. To that end, taking control of these notifications and thus limiting our interactions with social media apps is a good place to start. 

While most phones today include some kind of system for managing screen time and notifications, Instagram, one of the most popular social media platforms on the planet, includes built-in controls to restrict distracting notifications for up to 12 hrs a day. This feature is called ‘Quiet mode’, and is available on both Android and iOS platforms.

What is ‘Quiet mode’ on Instagram?

As Instagram put it, Quiet mode is designed to “help people focus, and to encourage people to set healthy boundaries with friends and followers.” When enabled, Quiet Mode does the following:

• Sets your Activity Status to ‘In Quiet mode’
• Disables notifications for a set period of time (up to 12 hrs a day) on all or certain days of the week
• When someone DMs you while you’re in Quiet Mode, Instagram will auto-reply with a message that you’re in Quiet mode and unavailable
• At the end of the Quiet mode period, Instagram will give you a quick summary to help you catch up

In addition to this, Instagram will pro-actively notify teenagers to enable Quiet mode if they spend a certain amount of time on the Instagram app at night.

ALSO READ: 5 new and upcoming Instagram features you should look out for

How to enable Quiet mode on Apple iPhones and Android smartphones

To enable Quiet Mode on the Instagram app on iPhones and Android phones, do the following:

1. Open the instagram app

2. Tap on your profile icon in the bottom-right corner

3. Tap on the menu icon in the top-right corner of your profile page

4. Tap on Notifications

5. Tap on Quiet mode

6. Toggle the Quiet mode switch to enable or disable Quiet mode

7. Tap on Start and End time to set a start and end time for Quiet mode

8. By default, Quiet mode is enabled for every day of the week, but you can disable Quiet mode on certain days of the week by tapping on the relevant icon in the ‘Choose days’ section of the menu

Quiet mode is now enabled on your Apple device. Instagram will notify you 10 minutes before Quiet mode starts, and will send a quick summary once it ends.

How to pause all notifications on Instagram

If you need to mute Instagram pings for longer than 12 hrs, you can temporarily pause all notifications on demand for up to 8 hours at a time. To do this:

1. Open the Instagram app

2. Tap on your profile icon in the bottom-right corner

3. Tap on the menu icon in the top-right corner of your profile page

4. Tap on Notifications

5. Toggle Pause all

6. Select a period from 15 minutes to 8 hrs during which all Instagram notifications will be paused

Features like Quiet mode give us a lot more control over our digital lives and the time we spend online. The feature can be especially useful at night to give us time to wind down before going to bed, and we’d recommend enabling it by default.