How To Turn Off Instagram Live Notifications When They Get Too Overwhelming

It's been a year of exciting changes for Instagram: the Facebook-owned social media platform has been doing its best to compete with other image-based platforms, particularly Snapchat, through the addition of several new features. Their latest feature, Live Video for Instagram Stories, is sort of a mash-up between Snapchat and Periscope. But with so many apps competing for your attention, you might be wondering how to opt-out of all the new notifications. Here's how to turn off Instagram Live Video notifications when it gets too overwhelming.

As if the 95 million photos shared on Instagram everyday isn't heavy enough, Instagram's latest update throws video into the mix, too. The company launched Stories earlier this year, which was meant to help the brand compete against apps like Snapchat. Now the social media platform has gone a step further and is getting into live video streaming — popular on Facebook and apps like Periscope. It's not all that surprising that Instagram decided to launch a live video feature, since its parent company, Facebook, has been using the feature for years. Instagram began as predominantly a photo-sharing media platform, but has branched out to include short video, GIF-like creations made with Boomerang, and now longer form video in a similar set-up to Snapchat.

For those attempting to stay on top of their social media brand, trying to keep up with all the changes has probably become a little overwhelming. Not just in terms of creating content, but of being exposed to content from others near-constantly, especially when new features pop up. Since the default for most apps is to have notifications on, depending on what device you're using, you might find yourself inundated with updates you don't want.

Similar to how other apps show you if someone's live streaming, you'll be able to see if an Instagram Live Story is streaming when you log on, whether or not you were notified of it. That gives you the chance to opt-in if you feel like, without it feeling like your phone is demanding that you do.

Since the live version of Instagram stories don't stick around after they've finished streaming, it makes sense that the default of the app is to notify users when they are happening. But if you're not that interested in the feature, or, if you just wind up with constant notifications about new streams, you'll be relieved to know they can be turned off. And while it's kind of annoying to have to manually turn of notifications, at least they can be turned off.

Just like you would for any other settings' change, head to the upper right corner of your Instagram profile and scroll down to Settings. Under Push Notifications, scroll through until you reach Live Videos. There, you'll be able to click the setting from ON to OFF — and while you're there, you can check to see if the other settings about notifications are to your liking. With all the changes to the app, doing a quick check-up of your settings is probably a good idea — and if it saves you being bombarded with notifications, even better.