What happens when you request to follow a private account on instagram

Private profiles are a great way to safeguard your own Instagram account, but if you want to view someone else's private profile, things can get tricky. Like any major social media app, Instagram has numerous safety/privacy features to keep your experience as welcoming as possible. Users can hide certain words, limit unwanted interactions with users, disable comments, block mentions, etc.

Another popular privacy feature on Instagram is the ability to make your account private. Switching to a private Instagram account takes just a few taps and seconds — though the impact is significant. With a private account, only approved followers can see photos/videos from that account. If you're following the account, the posts show up like normal. If you're not following the account, you won't be able to see the posts at all.

While private accounts are undeniably useful, many users wonder how they can view someone's Instagram profile if it's been set to private. Upon viewing a private Instagram profile, visitors can only see the person's profile picture, their number of posts, how many followers they have, and their bio/description if they have one. And that's it. The user's actual profile — including all of their photos and videos — is blocked with a message that says, 'This account is private.' So, how do you see what a private Instagram profile is hiding?

There's Only One Way To View Private Profiles

What happens when you request to follow a private account on instagram
What happens when you request to follow a private account on instagram

3. On the Settings page and select Privacy. On the Privacy page, enable the toggle beside the Private account option to turn your account into a private account. You can turn it off if you want to make your account public again.

What happens when you request to follow a private account on instagram
What happens when you request to follow a private account on instagram

4. In the pop-up, tap on the Switch to Private or Switch to Public option accordingly.

What happens when you request to follow a private account on instagram

That’s it, you have successfully switched your profile from public to private or private to public.

What Happens When You Make Your Instagram Account Private

Once you made your Instagram account public to private, here are all the changes you can expect from your Instagram account.

Who Can Check Your Private Instagram Account Posts/Stories

Only users who are following you can check your posts and stories. For all other users, it will say This account is private. Your posts will not appear on the search page or explore pages too even if you are using hashtags on your posts.

What happens when you request to follow a private account on instagram

Who Can Follow Me on Instagram If It Is Private

People cannot follow you directly anymore. You need to accept their follow request in order for them to follow you. You can accept the follow requests from the Notifications page. You will get a notification as soon as someone sends a request. At the top of the screen, you should find Follow requests option where you can find all the requests in one list.

On the Follow requests page, you should find the list of users who send you requests to follow you. You can tap on the Confirm button to confirm, and the Delete button to delete the request. Users will not know when you delete their request.

What happens when you request to follow a private account on instagram
What happens when you request to follow a private account on instagram

What Happens to My Old Instagram Followers Once I Make It Private

Any user who was following you previously will still be following you after you have made your Instagram account private. If you like to remove any of them, open your profile page, tap on the Followers option at the top and then tap on the Remove option to Remove anyone from following you.

Users can cancel their request and send another request. It can be irritating to get the same request again and again. To stop that, you can block the user completely. You can do that by opening their account, then tapping on the kebab menu (three-dot menu) at the top right and selecting the Block option in the menu to block that specific user

What happens when you request to follow a private account on instagram
What happens when you request to follow a private account on instagram

What Profile Info Is Visible on a Private Instagram Account

Though you have a private account, anyone can actually look at some of your profile details. For example, users can check your profile picture and bio. There is no way to hide it for only the people you follow. You can choose to block them for a few users by blocking them completely. It’s always better to use a profile picture that you are fine with everyone seeing.

Along with that, anyone can know the number of posts you have made, the number of followers you have, and the number of users you are following. Again, you cannot hide it from your followers only. But you can block any user to restrict them.

What happens when you request to follow a private account on instagram

They can access the number of people you are following and the number of people following you, but they cannot check the list of the following or followers. But if you both have any mutual friends, then they can check all the mutual followers between the two of you.

What happens when you request to follow a private account on instagram

Who Can Send Me Direct Messages on a Private Instagram Account

Though your account is private, everyone can still send you direct messages. But it is hidden and users have to tap on the kebab menu (three-dot menu) at the top and select the Send Message option. That’s it, now they can send you messages even without following you. You can stop specific users by blocking them. Blocked users cannot send you messages.

Who Can Tag Private Instagram Accounts

Anyone can tag you in their posts and ping you on random comments across Instagram which is annoying. Again, to stop it, the only way is the block individual users.

What Happens When You Make Your Instagram Account Public

Now let us see what happens when you make your Instagram public and more, welcoming.

Who Can View Public Instagram Account Stories

Your posts and stories can be viewed by anyone, even those who do not have an Instagram account.

If you have a huge number of followers and have set your account to a professional account, then the images and videos you post can also appear on Google Search.

What Happens to Pending Friend Requests

All your pending friend requests will get accepted once you make your Instagram account public account from private. To stop that, you have to delete the friend requests that you don’t want. However, they can follow you back again as your account is not private anymore.

What happens when you request to follow a private account on instagram
What happens when you request to follow a private account on instagram

If there are many pending friend requests, Instagram cannot accept all the users in one go. It will only accept a few users.

But you can change your Instagram account to private and then make it public again, you should see Instagram accepting more and more users. You can continue the process as many times as possible for all the requests to be accepted.

Will You Switch

Now that you know what happens when you make the switch to a private or public Instagram profile, will you make the switch? Remember one thing, if you own a professional account, you cannot change it into a private account immediately. You need to turn your account into a personal account in order to do that. Also, don’t include anything personal information in the profile pic and bio. It’s better to post it and pin that post to your Instagram profile instead.

Ravi Teja KNTS

Tech Enthusiast & Cinephile by Nature / Writing about technology for 2+ years on TechWiser/ Currently interested in PWAs, Cloud, AI, Ecosystems & Esthetics. But I keep changing my mind faster than Google's Messaging apps.

What happens to follow requests when you go from private to public on Instagram?

If you have pending follower requests on your private account and then you turn it public any pending follower requests you have are automatically accepted. These people will then be able to view any of the content you have posted on your account.

Can someone see if you follow a private account on Instagram?

If you have a private account, others can see who you follow on Instagram only if they are the followers you approve of. On the contrary, if you have an account open to the public, people do not have to follow your account to see the people you follow.

When you delete a follow request on Instagram Does the person know?

When you remove a follower, they aren't notified that you've removed them. You can also block someone to get them to stop following you. People aren't notified when you block them. Learn more about blocking people.

Does a private account have to accept your follow?

Taking your Instagram account private can give you a handful of benefits. In addition to the privacy, it allows you to manage your followers more directly, by requiring you to approve the people who want to follow you. No longer can users simply follow you, they have to submit a follow request.