How to Hide Followers on Instagram?

Imagine you worked hard on building a valuable database, but since it is visible to all, any competitor of yours can come and take advantage of it. That valuable database is your followers list on Instagram. 

Whether you run a business or are a social media influencer, your followers list can be a goldmine for your competitors who are trying to identify their targeted audience. Hence, for the sake of privacy and maintaining your competitive edge, you should try to keep it private. 

But how? Does Instagram allow you to do that? Let’s find that out. 

Can You Hide Followers On Instagram?

Unfortunately, there is no direct option available on the platform that can help you hide your followers and following list. But don’t worry, as we have come up with some tricks that can help you do that. 

But on the other hand, Instagram has also made some updates that can partially help you in this matter. For example, the platform is testing a new feature where they have stopped showing the entire followers list of other users, no matter if you follow them or not. 

However, this feature hasn’t been launched yet, and the platform is picking random verified and unverified profiles to test it. Under this feature, if someone tries to go through your Followers list, they will be presented with a random list of 20 to 30 people who are following you. This also restricts anyone from seeing your latest Instagram followers. 

Plus, the search option will also get removed, so no one will be able to search through your follower’s list. 

But as we said, this feature is neither out nor available for everyone. If you are lucky, your account might get picked for testing, but it will definitely not be permanent. So, instead, check our next section, where we have discussed practical ways that can help you hide your follower list and are available for all the users. 

How To Hide Followers List On Instagram?

Until Instagram makes the above feature permanently available for everyone, you can try out these three methods to hide your followers list on Instagram. 

1. Hide Your Followers From Those Who Don’t Follow You

According to Instagram’s privacy policy, if you agree to have a public account, then metrics like Followers and Following will be visible to everyone. So, if you want them to be hidden, the easiest way of doing it will be to make your account private. 

That way, anyone who isn’t following you will not be able to see details of your followers list. By enabling a private account, you could easily control who can and cannot see your content, too, just like you can’t view a private Twitter account’s tweets. 

So, let’s see how you can make your account go private from public. 

Step 1: Go to your profile and click on settings. 

Step 2: Click on settings and privacy. 

Step 3: Go to account privacy and find the option “Private account.” 

Step 4: Turn on the toggle button, and it should show you a pop-up text similar to this. Click on “Switch to private,” and your account will become private. 

After turning this setting on, anyone who wasn’t already following you will only be able to see the number of followers you have but won’t get any details of it. 

2. Hide Your Followers From Selected People 

The previous method will prevent non-subscribers from viewing your follower list, but what about those who already follow you? How to stop them? Well, you can’t stop everyone, so you need to be selective. 

After you make your account private, go through your existing follower list and spot users with whom you don’t want to share your follower list. You can then remove them from your follower list, and they will no longer be able to see your follower list and the content you post. 

Don’t worry; they will not get any notification or alert if you remove them from your follower list. So, let’s see how to remove someone from your follower list. 

Step 1: Go to your profile and click on your Followers list. 

Step 2: Find the user you want to remove from your followers. If you have a long list of followers, we suggest you utilize the available search option to save time. 

Step 3: Click on the “Remove” option next to their name. You should see a pop-up message where you need to click on the “Remove” option. 

3. Hiding Followers For Public Accounts 

If you own a business that you are promoting through Instagram or want to become a social media influencer, then keeping your account private may not be a viable option for you. Then, the only option left would be to block users. 

Again, in this case, you need to be selective and decide who the users are whom you want to restrict from viewing your account. Remember, once you block someone, not only will they be unable to see your follower list, but they will also be restricted from messaging you or seeing any of the content you post. 

So, let’s see how you can block a user on Instagram. 

Step 1: Go to the user’s profile. If they already follow you, you can find them in your follower list, but if they don’t, you can use the general search option to find them. 

Step 2: Click on the three dots right next to their username. 

Step 3: From there, you can click on Block and again “Block” to restrict the user from seeing you. 

Why Should You Hide Your Followers List?

There can be a lot of reasons why you would want to keep your followers list private. Here are some top reasons why people want to keep their follower lists private. 

1. Maintaining Privacy:

While being on social media can be a must for a few, they still might want to keep their lives private. This is why disclosing information such as their following and follower list can get uncomfortable. Hence, keeping them private can make their user experience much better. 

2. Competitive Advantage: 

As we mentioned earlier, it is a huge concern for businesses to reveal information about their target audience. The follower list of an already established business can be an asset for a beginner in that niche. So, to keep the competitive edge it took them years to build, some businesses and content creators might want to keep their follower lists private. 

3. Maintain An Appearance:

Numbers play a huge role on platforms like Instagram. The number of followers one has is directly associated with the amount of popularity and influence they have. But there can be times when people buy Instagram followers with PayPal to boost their following and want to keep it discrete. 

If they keep their follower lists private, it will be impossible for others to know if those followers are organic or not. So, it can massively help them to keep their social status unharmed. 

Wrapping Up 

Hope you found this guide helpful and were able to find a suitable way to keep your follower list private on Instagram. With increasing privacy concerns among users and Instagram’s efforts to improve user experience, we can soon expect a separate feature that will help us hide the details of our follower list. But till then, you can pick any one of the three methods we mentioned here and keep your information safe from stalkers.