Here's How To Turn Off Your Instagram Commments

Whether you're an Insta junkie or not, everyone can agree that when it comes to dealing with haters, the more provisions, the better. The great thing about social media is that on personal pages, what you say goes. You can block, mute, unfollow and otherwise remove unwanted presences from your feed. But if it's a matter of simply not wanting everything you post to be a catalyst for conversation, this is how to turn off the comments on Instagram, because sometimes, doing so is a legitimate act of self-care.

Instagram's official help page explains how you can get this done. If you want to make sure the comments are not open before you post, start on the editing page before you send your photo to the feed. At the very bottom, you'll notice a button that says "advanced settings." If you click that, there will be an option to turn off comments. If you accidentally forget to turn them off before you post and start receiving comments, you can delete them or, if they follow Instagram's qualifications for being abusive, you can also report them to the app.

But you can also turn off the comments even after the post itself is live. Here's a step-by-step debriefer on how to do it.

Begin With Your Profile Page

When you open your app, click on the icon at the very bottom right of the page, leading you to your profile. From there, you can select the photo that you want to turn off the comments for. Again, this is only necessary if you forgot to turn them off before you posted the photo in the first place.

Use The Ellipses Button To Open Your Photo Options

At the top of the photo, just beneath the "refresh" button in the top right corner, you'll see an ellipses button, or something that looks like this: "..." Press that, and you'll be presented with six different action items. You can delete the photo, share it to your social media feeds, edit the caption, archive it, or turn off the comments. The button you want should be the second from the top.

Viola! Comments Gone!

When you return to your photo, you will notice that the comments section has been removed, and all comments previously posted are now invisible. It's as easy as that. If you are concerned about abusive or illegal comments being made on your profile, you can report users to Instagram. Under one of their FAQ pages, the app explains that though they value and try to foster inclusivity and diversity, there are still rules in place to keep users safe. The company explains:

It's never OK to encourage violence or attack anyone based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, disabilities, or diseases. When hate speech is being shared to challenge it or to raise awareness, we may allow it. In those instances, we ask that you express your intent clearly.

If You Want To Turn Comments Back On...

If you decide that you no longer need to keep comments private, or if you turned them off by accident, you can make them public again by following the same steps and instead pressing the "turn on commenting" button. When you return to the photo, you will notice that all of the previously posted comments will be visible, and nothing would have been deleted (similar to how archive works).

There's so much room for fun and creativity on social spaces like Instagram, but never think twice about taking certain measures to ensure that you remain feeling as safe and comfortable as possible. It is, after all, your page.