Instagram is one of the most popular social media services around the moment. Now owned by Facebook, it still retains its unique approach and identity among its users.
There are many privacy-related options on the platform to help users protect themselves, including the ability to block out someone from their profiles completely. In this article, we’re looking at how you can hide your Instagram posts (or stories) from certain people.
Also read: What does Navigation mean on Instagram?
How to selectively hide Instagram posts and stories?
Keep in mind that while Instagram allows you to share a story with a specific group of people using the Close Friends feature, there’s no such option for posts. If you post something on Instagram, it will be visible to everyone depending on your profile privacy settings.
However, here are a few options you could try.
Share stories using Close Friends
Close Friends is a rather popular feature on Instagram that lets users share stories with a predetermined list of followers they’d like. This way, you can quickly share a story with a subset of your followers.
Check out this detailed guide about Close Friends on Instagram
Change your profile’s privacy settings
If you have a public account, your posts will be visible to everyone who visits your profile. If you switch to a private profile, however, only your followers (approved ones, not the ones who have requested to follow you) will be able to see what you post.
Follow these steps to make your account private.

- Open Instagram and head over to your profile.
- Tap the hamburger menu icon in the top-right.
- Tap Settings.

- Tap Privacy.
- Under the Account privacy section, enable the Private Account slider.
Keep in mind that all your existing followers will be carried over when going from a public to a private account, so you might have to do a bit extra fishing in your following to get things in order.
Also read: How to unhide tagged photos on Instagram?
Remove the users you don’t want
If you’re using a private account on Instagram, you can remove certain followers so that they won’t be able to see any account activity. Here’s how.

- Open Instagram, head over to the profile of the person you want to remove. and tap the three vertical dots in the top right.
- Tap Remove follower.
The account will now be removed from your following and will have to send you a follow request again before they can see your content.
Block the person
Finally — a bit of a drastic approach — you can outright block someone on Instagram to be rid of them for good. You could also restrict them, in which case while they’ll still be able to see your posts, any comments they make will remain hidden from the public.
Check out this detailed guide to know the differences between restricting and blocking on Instagram
Also read: What does Active Today mean on Instagram?