No matter what you use social media for, you probably have all your friends and family on there. And while you may love and respect those people, seeing every single thing they post online can sometimes get a little too much.
On top of that, you probably have contacts who post things that either don’t concern you, or simply annoy you. The problem is you don’t always want to unfriend people just to de-clutter your feeds.
Which is where the Mute button comes into play. If you feel like someone’s taking up too much of your social media time, here is how to mute people on any social media platform of your choice.
How to Mute People on Facebook
Facebook gives you a few ways of keeping your newsfeed nice and clean. For example, you can filter out someone’s posts without unfriending them. Potentially saving you a scandal or two.
In order to hide them from your feed, first temporarily, tap the three dots on the top right of one of their posts, and click Snooze for 30 days. However, their posts will reappear in your feed after this time has passed.
So, if you want to get rid of them for good, you need to unfollow the user. Tap on the three dots at the top of their post and click Unfollow. You can also unfollow them by going on the user’s profile page—hit the Following button above their recent posts and choose Unfollow.
The good news is your contacts will never find out that you snoozed or unfollowed them. You’ll stay friends with them on the network and will always have an option to start seeing their updates in your feed again.
How to Mute People on Messenger
Choosing Messenger over Facebook already indicates that you prefer your social network clean and uncluttered. But there still might be notifications that you’d like to turn off.
In order to do that, open your conversation list and choose the thread you’d like to mute. Tap the Information button (on Android) or the conversation name on the top (on iOS). Then choose Notifications > Mute Conversation. You’ll have an option to choose a time period from 15 minutes to 24 hours, or choose to silence notifications until you manually undo it.
How to Mute People on Instagram
WHAT A DAY – Instagram is finally letting me mute users!
— Bridget (@bridgetmarie33) June 21, 2018
After many requests from the network’s users, Instagram finally added a mute button. In case you don’t want to completely lose connection with those you follow, but would like to just dial down their Insta-volume a little, you can now mute them.
To mute someone, tap the three dots in the corner of a post. Then choose from the following options: Mute Posts, Mute Story, or Mute Posts and Story.
You can still see that person’s posts by visiting their profile page, and get notified when they tag you. At the moment, you can only mute users on the app (Android or iOS), but not on the Instagram website.
How to Mute People on Twitter
Twitter also has a range of options when it comes to ignoring people—you can choose to either block, mute, or unfollow people.
In order to mute a user, go to their profile, click on the three dots in the top right, and select Mute. Another way to do it is to find one of the user’s tweets, click the dropdown menu arrow on the right and choose Mute.
The user won’t get a notification about this. And if you change your mind, you can always go back to their profile, find the same menu and select Unmute.
On Twitter, you can also review a list of people you’ve muted. Go to Settings and privacy > Privacy and safety > Muted accounts. You can use this to bring someone back into your feed by hitting the Mute icon.
How to Mute People on Snapchat
The option to put someone on do not disturb on snapchat is an absolute blessing??
— chlo (@chlolucas_) February 7, 2018
Not so long ago, the only way to ignore conversations on Snapchat was to block a user or leave a group. The users would, of course, get notified of your actions.
Now the platform has a feature called Do Not Disturb. It allows users to turn off notifications from one-to-one and group chats. You still get the users’ Snaps, but you won’t get alerts about them until you check the app. The best part is that the ones you snooze stay oblivious to all of this.
To turn off notifications for a Snapchat friend, go to a chat on the Friends screen. Tap the menu in the upper left corner and switch on the Do Not Disturb mode. You will then see the snoring emoji appear next to their name in the chat menu.
How to Mute People on Reddit
Once you learn how to use Reddit productively, it becomes a great and resourceful site. But it can easily bring more clutter and spam into your online presence. If you’re finding someone’s messages or comment replies on Reddit annoying, you can simply block those users. Previously you could only do it in private messages, but now it affects all parts of the site.
Once you block a certain user, their profile together with their comments, posts, and messages will completely disappear from view. In order to block someone, click the Block User button on their reply in your inbox. If you ever wish to undo that, go to your friends list and find the “blocked user” section, where you can unblock them.
How to Mute People on WhatsApp
Beyond Messenger, other instant-message apps can become cluttered when your friends constantly spam you with tons of notifications. On WhatsApp, you can choose to turn off alerts for specific conversations.
Open a chat that’s becoming too noisy. On Android, tap the three dots on the top right. On iOS, click the contact (or group) name at the top of the screen. All you need to do from there is choose the Mute option and then pick the time period—eight hours, one week, or one year. You can undo this at any time using the same menu.
How to Mute People on Telegram
Telegram has a similar option to WhatsApp for muting notifications from particular contacts and groups.
On Android, tap on the three dots in a chat and choose Mute notifications. On iOS, go to the group or contact info and click Notifications. You can then choose to mute a particular chat for one hour, 8 hours, or until you manually unmute it.
If it’s not the chat messages themselves that irritate you, but more the fact that the sound of receiving them distracts you, try silencing notifications in Telegram and WhatsApp instead. This will definitely help you regain control over these messaging apps, and bring you some peace and quiet.
Ready to Start Muting Your Social Media Friends?
Don’t worry, ignoring your friends isn’t actually not as bad as it sounds. Muting some of your contacts will help you dial down the number of posts you see on social networks daily and make your feed a little quieter.
The best part is, they won’t even know that you’re ignoring their updates. You, on the other hand, might finally start enjoying social media again—which is, surely, the ultimate aim.
Read the full article: How to Mute People on Social Media: Facebook, WhatsApp, Reddit, and More
