You know someone's seen your Instagram message when you see the word "Seen" or their profile picture appear below your message in the chat, indicating they've opened the direct message, but if you only see the "Delivered" status or a timestamp, they haven't viewed it yet, or they might be using a trick like reading it from the notification preview to avoid showing as seen. For disappearing content, you'll see a dotted circle if they screenshot it.
When they finally accidentally click your message, and then they still don't reply. They are ignoring you!
As the other person mentioned, 'seen today' indicates your message was viewed within the day it was sent. 'Seen' indicates your message was viewed after a week of being sent.
Read receipts allow others in a chat on Instagram to see when you've viewed their message.
Whatever the reason, it can be frustrating to not know if your message has been seen or ignored. Fortunately, there is a way to find out if someone has read your text message, and it is called, “read receipts”. Read receipts are notifications that tell you when the recipient of your message has opened and read it.
Look for "Seen" at the bottom of the message.
If the message is a group chat, you'll see the names of everyone who has read your message next to "Seen."
You can tell if someone read your text through read receipts in apps like iMessage, Google Messages (RCS), or WhatsApp, which show "Read" with a timestamp when the recipient opens it, if both you and the other person have the feature enabled in your settings. For regular SMS, you'll only see "Delivered," but some apps offer delivery confirmations or you can infer from a quick reply.
Two other ways to check if someone blocked you: Call to see if you go directly to voicemail or if it rings. If you're not blocked, the phone should ring anywhere from three to twelve times before going to voicemail. A blocked number may ring only once and then go to voicemail.
This indicates that the message has been delivered to the recipient's device. If both you and your contact have read receipts enabled, this indicates your contact has read the message.
Unlike some messaging platforms, Instagram doesn't provide an official setting to turn off read receipts. The “Seen” status is a permanent feature of the platform, and there's no built-in way to disable it.
Instagram doesn't allow you to see exactly who views your profile, but you can identify potential stalkers by checking profile interactions, story viewers, and followers. Stalking on Instagram can be dangerous because it may involve invasion of privacy, identity theft, and harassment.
You aren't notified when you're muted, and you can't go anywhere to see a list of who has muted you. But there are some subtle signs you can look for. If a person who used to often like or comment on your posts seems to have suddenly gone silent, you may have been muted.
7 Subtle Ways You Are Being Ignored
Muting helps you ignore someone without preventing them from doing anything. Blocking someone prevents them from messaging you, commenting on your observations, identifying your observations, and otherwise interacting with you on iNaturalist.
If you see a green message bubble instead of a blue one, then that message was sent using RCS or MMS/SMS instead of iMessage. There are several possible reasons for this: The person that you sent the message to doesn't have an Apple device. iMessage is turned off on your device or on your recipient's device.
Restore messages in Google Messages
Navigate to and open the Google Messages app, then tap the Profile icon. Tap Archived, and then touch and hold the message you'd like to recover. You can also tap additional messages in the Archives.
Turning off read receipts is an easy way to avoid both social faux pas and being targeted by scammers and other bad actors. Apple has good guides for turning them off on iPhones, iPads, and Macs, which include instructions for turning them off system-wide as well as for specific people.
Most DM issues come from connectivity problems, app bugs, or account restrictions. Try these fixes: check your internet, restart the app, update Instagram, clear cache, or reinstall.