Yes, Instagram allows you to hide your reels from specific people. There are a couple of ways to do this on Instagram.
Hide Your Reels from Specific Followers Using the Close Friends Feature
The easiest way to hide your reels from some of your followers is to use Instagram’s Close Friends feature. This allows you to share reels with only a small group of selected followers that you trust.
Here’s how to use Close Friends for reels:
- Go to your profile and tap the three-line menu in the top right.
- Select Close Friends.
- Tap the + icon to add followers you want to include in your Close Friends list.
- When creating a new reel, tap Close Friends at the bottom of the screen before sharing it.
This reel will now only be visible to your Close Friends. Other followers won’t even know the reel exists on your profile.
Hide Your Reels from Specific People Using Restrict
You can also restrict specific people from seeing your reels using Instagram’s Restrict feature. This is more concealed than blocking someone.
Here’s how to restrict someone from viewing your reels:
- Go to their profile page and tap the three-dot menu in the top right.
- Select Restrict.
- Confirm that you want to restrict their account.
When you restrict someone, they won’t be notified and they’ll still be able to request to follow you. However, they will not see any of your reels moving forward.
Temporarily Hide Your Reels
If you only want to hide your reels for a short period of time, you can make them private or archive them.
Make Your Reels Private
Making a reel private hides it from all your followers except those you’ve added to your Close Friends list. You can do this by:
- Going to your profile and tapping the three-line menu.
- Selecting Reels Archive.
- Tap the three-dot menu on a reel and choose Privacy Settings.
- Tap Private and confirm.
Archive Your Reels
Archiving your reels removes them from your profile so they can’t be viewed. But it keeps them saved so you can re-share them later. Here’s how:
- Go to your profile and tap the three-line menu.
- Select Reels Archive.
- Tap the three-dot menu on a reel and choose Archive.
The reel will be removed from your profile until you choose to restore it.
Hide Reels From Follower Requests
If you don’t want your reels visible to those who’ve requested to follow you, you can change your account settings to automatically decline follow requests.
Here’s how:
- Go to your profile and tap the three-line menu.
- Select Settings.
- Tap Privacy.
- Toggle off Manual Approve Follow Requests.
This will automatically decline all follow requests, so only existing followers will see your reels.
Hide Your Reels From Non-Followers
You can also choose to completely hide your reels from people who don’t follow you. Just set your account to private mode:
- Go to Settings > Privacy.
- Toggle on Private Account.
Now only your approved followers will see anything on your profile, including your reels.
Use a Separate Instagram Account for Reels
If you want to fully separate your reels from your main Instagram profile, create a secondary account just for sharing reels. Then you can be selective about which account you allow certain people to follow.
Be sure to use a different email and username when creating your secondary reels account. You can easily switch between accounts in the Instagram app.
The benefit of a separate reels account is you have full control over who can view those reels. You don’t have to hide anything from existing followers on your main profile.
Recap: How to Hide Instagram Reels From Certain People
Here’s a quick recap on how to hide your Instagram reels:
- Use Close Friends to share reels with just your inner circle.
- Restrict people you don’t want viewing your reels.
- Make reels private or archive them to temporarily remove them.
- Decline follow requests to hide reels from non-followers.
- Make your account private to hide reels from anyone not following you.
- Create a separate reels-only account and be selective with followers.
Instagram provides flexibility in letting you control who can see your reels. Take advantage of features like Close Friends, Restrict, and private accounts if you want to limit certain people from viewing your reels.
Hiding reels does not delete them – you can always change the privacy settings later to share them with more people. Be thoughtful about who you share reels with and utilize Instagram’s options for hiding reels when needed.
Keep in mind that screenshots can still happen even with limited audiences. So completely preventing someone from ever seeing a reel is difficult. The above options simply limit visibility and make it harder to find your reels. Proceed cautiously when sharing sensitive reels even with Close Friends.
We hope this guide gave you a good overview of how to hide reels on an account basis, per reel, and various privacy settings to control visibility. Instagram is constantly evolving, so be sure to check for updated features that may provide more reel privacy options in the future.
Happy Instagramming! Now you know exactly how to hide reels if you ever need to limit viewership and share more selectively.