What Happens when You get Blocked on Instagram?

The block feature is something that pretty much all social media platforms use, including Instagram. When you block someone, it’s a way of telling them that you don’t want anything to do with them anymore. Did you have a fight with one of your friends? Block. Is someone repeatedly harassing you through messages? Block. Did you find out that one of your acquaintances acted in very questionable ways in the past? Block. Blocking a person will prevent or limit further interactions with them, and for many it’s a very liberating solution.

But what if you’re the one on the receiving end? Blocking someone is super satisfactory when you do it, but getting blocked really isn’t. Now, speaking of Instagram, we mentioned that blocking is an available feature on the media-sharing platform as well. If you’re having the suspicion that you got blocked by someone on Instagram, you won’t know that right away, since the app doesn’t notify users that they’ve been blocked by another user. So, you’ll have to investigate yourself on wether you’ve been blocked or not. But don’t worry, because we’re going to guide you through this process: in this article, in fact, we’ll find out what happens when you get blocked on Instagram and what actions you can’t perform anymore!

Things that might happen when you get blocked on Instagram

When you get blocked, you might not find the other person’s Instagram profile in search results, especially when using the app’s web version. In case you’re able to find said person’s profile, when you view it you won’t see their published posts (“No posts yet”), even though you can clearly see that they created posts below/above “Posts”. You also won’t be able to view the person’s follower and following list.

Another clue that suggests you’ve been blocked is going to the person’s profile after signing out of your profile. Go to their profile while in incognito mode by entering the “https://www.instagram.com/username/” URL in your browser, and replace “username” with the person’s actual handle. Now, if you’re able to view the person’s profile and all of its contents while logged out, you’ve been most likely blocked by them. Keep in mind that if the person’s profile is private, you won’t be able to tell. This method also works if you go to the person’s profile with another account.

Checking your Direct messages can help you understand if your friend blocked you, as well. If you had a message thread going on with that person, you won’t be able to view your sent and received messages anymore while blocked.

And lastly, in case you’ve been blocked, whenever you’ll try hitting the “Follow” button it won’t work out, no matter how many times you try.

What you can do to get unblocked

Finding out that you’ve been blocked by your friend is never pleasant, especially when it happens for no apparent reason. The only thing you can do is rethinking about your words and actions to try and figure out why you’ve been blocked. If you realize why it happened, you’ll probably want to reach out to said person via other means and apologize for your behavior.

On the contrary, if you’re both fine with not interacting ever again and your blocked state doesn’t bother you at all, just let it go and keep on living your life!