How many of you can say that you’ve ever approached a stranger face-to-face just because you liked their vibe and wanted to know them better? While it sounds dreamy in theory, in reality, such a thing requires a great deal of courage and is not everyone’s cup of tea. After all, if confessing your feelings for someone you know can be tough, doing it for a stranger is unquestionably so. And the digital equivalent of this valiant act is sending someone a follow request.
You never know if the recipient will accept or reject it, or make fun of it, or you, with their friends. But you choose to be vulnerable and put yourself out there in the hope of finding something meaningful in an otherwise pretentious world.
This is also why we often recommend our readers to be careful and considerate while going through the follow requests they receive on Instagram. Suppose you ended up deleting a request you meant to accept; what will be the consequences? Is there a way to take it all back? Stick with us till the end of the blog to find answers to all these questions!
If You Cancel Someone’s Follow Request on Instagram, Can You Undo It?
Let’s get straight to the point. We understand that while checking your follow requests, you probably canceled a request unintentionally.
This is a common mistake we hear about from our readers; as it happens, there’s very little distance between the Confirm and Delete buttons next to follow requests. Anyone’s fingers can take a lousy slip and miss the intended target, right?
So, what can be done to fix this issue? We can tell you what you can’t do: it’s undoing the act. This might come as a surprise to some of you, but unlike unsending, a DM, canceling a request has no scope of reversal on the platform.
Once you’ve pressed Delete on a follow request, it automatically disappears from your Follow Requests tab, thereby not allowing you a second chance to make things right.
Instagram’s solution to your problem
Considering your problem is related to Instagram, it’s natural to wonder what the platform’s help center has to say about it, isn’t it?
Since you decided to come to us first, we’ve gotten the suggestion of the Instagram Help Center right here for you:
If you accidentally deny a follow request, you can ask the person to request to follow you again.
That wasn’t very helpful, now, was it?
Well, don’t worry; we have a couple more suggestions that you might find more appealing than this one. Let’s move ahead to explore them below, shall we?
Here’s how you can salvage the situation:
We’ve already established how the act of deleting a follow request on Instagram is irreversible above. For those of you who are wondering how to fix this now, here are a couple of suggestions that we believe can contain the damage; if not revert it.
Check these out:
Trick #1: Send them a follow request from your side.
As Instagram suggests, asking this person to send another request is one idea; waiting for their request to arrive a second time is another. However, both of these seem insincere, if truth be told.
What if we told you there was another, more polite way of salvaging this situation is by sending them a follow request yourself?
If the mistake was on your part, it makes sense that you take the first step towards resolving it; in your case, this involves looking up this person on the Explore tab and requesting to follow them by pressing the blue Follow button on their profile.
Trick #2: Send them a message request explaining what has happened
Suppose you tried the first trick but didn’t get any response from this person. Or even worse, they ended up deleting your request. What would you think first? You might feel annoyed at it, but remember that because you’ve done the same to them in the first place, it’d be childish to hold a grudge at reciprocation.
The right course of action here is not to feel insulted but attempting to explain to them what exactly happened. After all, it was your mistake that started it all; you must give clarifying things a shot.
This can be done by sending them a message, explaining how you didn’t mean to delete their request, and that it was an accident. As you two aren’t connected, your message will be stored in their Message requests folder rather than their DMs.
This means that it can take a while for them to check and respond to your request, but don’t give up hope. Their reply might be on its way to you soon.
Is there a place where all your cancelled follow requests are saved?
Do you remember how we talked about how a cancelled request disappeared from your Follow Requests tab earlier? That might make one wonder if these requests are stored somewhere else on the platform, just like expired stories are saved in the Stories Archive folder.
We’re saddened to disappoint you here, because there’s no specific location designated for the storage of follow requests that you delete, be it intentional or otherwise.
The bottom line
With this, we’re ready to wrap today’s blog up. But before we take your leave, we’d like to leave with a summary of our discussion above.
We began by addressing how sending a follow request can be a vulnerable act for many and how being turned down can make them miserable. Then, we moved ahead to talk about deleting a follow request by mistake and its consequences. While the action cannot be undone on the platform, we’ve added some suggestions that might help in salvaging what’s left of the mess.
Do you have any other Instagram-related queries? Then head straight to our Instagram section; you might find some answers!
Also Read:
