How to Prevent Being Added to Groups on Instagram

If you’re a regular Instagram user, you are probably quite familiar with the situation where an account adds you to a group chat out of the blue. This may be someone you follow, but regardless of your connection with them, being forced into a group you may not want to be part of is quite irritating. If you’ve been searching for ways to put a stop to this exasperating behavior, this article looks at some routes you can take to prevent being added to groups on Instagram.

Also read: How to Manage Comments on Instagram

How to Stop People You Follow From Adding You to Groups

By default, your followers can easily add you to group chats without asking your permission. It can be highly distracting, but fortunately, there’s something you can do to make this less irritating: mute the discussions to prevent getting new message notifications.

Go to Direct and open the message thread in question, then select the “i” button in the upper-right corner to bring up Details.

From here, you can “Mute messages” so you won’t be bothered by whatever is happening in the chat.

Alternatively, if you really don’t want to be in there, find the Admin who created the group at the bottom and tap on the three-dot menu next to their account name. This will bring up three options: Block, Report and Restrict.

How to Stop Strangers or Bots from Adding You to Groups

This one is a bit trickier to solve. Unfortunately, Instagram does not allow users with personal accounts to control who adds them to groups. Basically, everyone with an Instagram and knowledge of your account name can add you, even if your profile is private.

What you can do is disable push notifications so that you won’t be alerted when someone tries to add you to a random group chat.

Quickly Disable Group Request Alerts

1. Open Instagram on your phone.

2. Tap on your profile picture in the lower-right corner of the display.

3. Next, tap on the hamburger menu in the upper-right corner.

4. Click on the gear icon at the bottom to bring up Settings.

5. Select Notifications.

6. Find and click on “Direct Messages.”

7. Scroll down until you find “Group Requests” and turn the option Off.

Thankfully, Instagram doesn’t just let anyone flood your inbox with messages. Instead, non-followers who want to reach out will be shown in a discrete Requests folder, which you can access from the upper-right corner in Direct. Tap on the notification to see the requests and open any of the conversation threads.

From here, you can easily block the account who has added you to the group simply by tapping on the dedicated button at the bottom or press the Delete button. That doesn’t guarantee the account won’t try to add you again later, so the best solution would be simply to Block.

What if you inadvertently pressed on the third button and accepted the request? Simply go back to your Direct messages and long tap on the conversation to delete it. Or you can keep it and mute it instead by selecting “Mute Messages” from the pop-up menu at the bottom.

Alternatively, open the chat, tap on the “i” button in the upper-right corner and select the red “Leave Chat” button.

How to Stop Others from Adding Your Business Account to Groups

For those with a business account, things are a bit easier. Instagram is currently in the process of rolling out a feature which offers the means to prevent random accounts from adding you to unwanted groups.

Instagram has been testing the new option with a limited number of accounts, so it might not be showing on your device just yet.

If you have the option, you should be able to find it under “Settings -> Privacy -> Messages.” Here, you should go to the “Allow others to add you to groups“ section and tick the “Only people you follow” option.

If there’s no “Messages” option under the Interactions in Privacy, check back later to see if the option has been made available in your area. You could also try accessing your business account on another device and see if the feature appears there.

Now that you know how to prevent being added to groups on Instagram, you should also learn how to create your own Instagram filter and how to use the app on your computer for a change.