If you have a regular personal Instagram account, you won’t be able to mark messages as unread. Marking a message as unread does not undo the read receipt. The sender will still see “seen” at the bottom of the message even if you mark the message unread.
Once you tap this icon, radio selection buttons will appear next to each message in your inbox.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to undo the “seen” status if you’ve already read a message. There’s also no way to turn off read receipts, even if you hide your online status. The only way to read a message without the sender knowing is to read the message without an internet connection and then log out of your Instagram account before reconnecting. This process can be a little finicky, so it’s important that you follow these steps precisely. If you skip a step, the sender will know you’ve seen the message!
On an Android, open the Settings app, tap Network & internet or Connections, and then turn on “Airplane mode. " On an iPhone or iPad, open the Control Center by swiping down from the top-right corner of your screen (iPhone X and later) or swiping up from the bottom of the screen (iPhone SE, 8, and earlier). Then, tap the airplane icon to turn on airplane mode. On some iPhones and iPads, turning on airplane mode won’t disconnect you from Wi-Fi. If the Wi-Fi icon is still blue, tap it to turn off Wi-Fi now.
Don’t turn off airplane mode or reconnect yet—if you do that, the “seen” status will be added as soon as you go back online.
Tap the back button at the top-left corner of your inbox to return to your feed. Tap your profile icon at the bottom-right. Tap the three horizontal lines at the top-right. Tap Settings. Scroll down and tap Log out Select your account and tap Log out to confirm. Close the Instagram app and return to your Home screen.
If you manually disabled Wi-Fi on an iPhone or iPad, tap the Wi-Fi icon to reconnect now.
