If you have an Android, swipe down to open the Quick Settings panel (swipe down a second time if you don’t see the Airplane Mode icon). Tap the airplane icon to turn on Airplane Mode. If you have an iPhone, swipe down from the top of your screen to open Control Center, then tap the airplane icon.
When Airplane Mode is on, your phone doesn’t send any outside signals! So Instagram won’t be able to update that you’re reading messages.
For Android, swipe down to open the Quick Settings panel (swipe down a second time if you don’t see the Airplane Mode icon). Tap the airplane icon to turn off Airplane Mode. For iPhone, swipe down from the top of your screen to open Control Center, then tap the airplane icon. Your phone will reconnect to the internet and you can log back into your Instagram account.
Tapping a notification takes you to the Instagram message and will mark it with a read receipt, which you don’t want. It’s best to turn off message notifications if you want to avoid sending a read receipt but are in the habit of tapping every notification. Do this so new messages and message requests won’t send you notifications that you might accidentally tap! You’ll need to use Airplane Mode to read messages without sending a read receipt until Instagram allows you to disable read receipts in the app.
View “Message Requests” by going to your inbox (tapping the Messenger icon when you open Instagram) and tapping Requests.
This method helps you turn off active status, so no one will see that you’re online and your read receipts won’t show others that you’ve read their message. [1] X Research source
Just don’t tap the notification to open Instagram because that will trigger a read receipt!
