If you’re an Instagrammer (and if you aren’t), you might be familiar with the two different kinds of accounts on the platform: the professional and the private. The former, which was initially used mostly by celebrities, is all the hype today. All marketers, content creators, influencers, and businesses use these accounts.
On the other hand, private accounts are used by netizens who aren’t very keen on using the exposure on the platform and prefer to keep a close network.
While anyone on the platform can access the stories and posts uploaded on a professional account (unless they’ve been blocked), the content of a private account is only accessible to a select few.
But how are these select few chosen? That’s where the concept of Follow Requests comes into play. If you want to follow the profile of someone who has a private account on Instagram, you’ll need their permission.
And this permission is obtained by sending them a follow request. Once they accept your request, you’ll be able to view their content. And, if your request has been rejected by the next party, it’s a sign that they don’t want you to access their content.
As a private account owner on the platform, you must’ve found yourself in a situation where someone sends you a request and upon being rejected, re-sends that request. Now, we understand that they might’ve thought you rejected it by mistake the first time. But for those who send it a third time, they surely can’t take a hint.
So, how do you handle such people on Instagram? Sure, rejecting their request time and again is a doable thing, too, but it does get tiring after a while, doesn’t it?
Worry not; we’re here just to help you out. Stick with us till the end of the blog to explore different methods of dealing with such pestering Instagrammers and steps to turn off follow request on Instagram.
Can You Turn Off Follow Request on Instagram?
Unfortunatelly, you can’t turn off follow request on Instagram. As there is no straightforward setting or option for prohibiting someone from sending you a follow request. As a private account owner, you get a choice about whether or not you can accept their follow request, but sending one is totally their choice.
Now that the direct option has been crossed out, we have two different approaches you can use to stop someone from sending follow request on Instagram.
How to Stop Someone from Requesting to Follow You on Instagram (Turn Off Follow Request)
Ask them to stop
We’re firm believers in the fact that a conversation can solve everything. Well, most things. So, one way of getting out of such a situation is to DM this person, telling them that you don’t want them on your network (or if there’s another reason, you can explain that as well) and asking them to stop politely.
However, not many netizens would be interested in DMing someone whose request they don’t even want to accept. For those, we have a slightly harsher solution.
How to avoid receiving irrelevant follow requests on Instagram?
Now that we’ve solved your current problem, let’s discuss how such problems can be avoided moving forward. If someone is sending you a follow request multiple times and you have no interest in accepting it, the chances of them being a stranger are quite high.
And you’re not alone in it; many Instagrammers claim to be troubled about too many requests from strangers on the platform. If the same thing might be happening to you as well, here’s a trick that you can try out:
Turn off the Similar Account Suggestions for Your Profile
The Similar account suggestions on Instagram is a relatively new concept where in the platform’s AI observes the kind of content you like or pages/people you follow and shows you suggestions based on them.
However, they’ve also provided all users with an option to exclude their profiles from popping up in Similar account suggestions in the Edit Profile section of your profile. However, this setting hasn’t yet made its descent to the mobile apps but can be changed in Instagram’s web app.
The bottom line
With this, we’ve reached the end of our blog. Let’s do a quick revision of everything new we’ve learned today.
We began by talking about how some follow requests can be annoying on the platform and then moved on to talk about ways of getting rid of them. We learned that while you can’t prohibit someone from sending you requests straightaway, blocking them can solve the problem. You can also try to ask them not to do it, but that’s very unlikely to work in most cases.
Is there any other problem you face on the platform? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll solve it for you!
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