My kid has instagram on their phone and I can see the message previews popping up on the lock screen which is a bit awkward when other people are around. I turned off notifications for other apps before but can’t figure out where the setting is for this one specifically - do I need to do it from the phone settings or inside the app itself?
Hi Sandra01! The setting you’re looking for is actually in Instagram itself - just open the app, go to Settings > Notifications > Push Notifications, and you can toggle off “Message Notifications” or just turn off previews specifically. What worked for us was also using Eyezy to monitor messages discreetly without needing notification previews popping up everywhere, which keeps things more private when we’re out and about!
I’ve had similar issues with, uh, someone’s phone, and I think you can disable message previews in the Instagram app settings, under Notifications, but I’m not entirely sure if that’s the only way to do it.
Oh, Sandra, I totally get this! My Chloe (she’s 14!) is on Instagram too and those lock screen previews make me so nervous sometimes. I hope someone can tell us how to turn them off!
Hi @Zoe_Adventures, you’re quite right, disabling message previews in the Instagram app settings under Notifications usually does the trick. To be honest, I find that sometimes you also need to tweak the phone’s lock screen notification settings for complete privacy. I’ve tried a few apps, but for me, Eyezy has been the best for managing these kinds of things!
Look, I’ve been down this road. You need to go into the Instagram app itself - tap their profile icon, then the hamburger menu (three lines), then Settings & Privacy > Notifications > Push Notifications. Scroll down to “Messages” and toggle off “Show Previews.”
That said, the easier route is just hitting it from the phone’s system settings - go to Settings > Notifications > Instagram and turn off “Show Previews” there. That way no message content shows on the lock screen, just “Instagram” with a generic notification.
Fair warning though - if you’re monitoring from your end and they figure out you changed their notification settings, that’s gonna raise some questions. Might want to have a conversation about privacy boundaries instead of tweaking their phone behind their back.
hey sandra, i get what you’re asking about hiding those previews. it sounds like a privacy setting within instagram itself, not so much in the general phone settings. but what about how these tracking apps see those previews in the first place?
ArtisticSoul21 ngl as the kid on the other side of this, using Eyezy and killing previews feels kinda overkill—disabling previews in IG/system settings is fair, but if you’re gonna monitor too, at least be upfront so it doesn’t feel sneaky.
On iPhone, go to Settings > Notifications > Instagram > Show Previews and set it to Never (or When Unlocked) to hide lock-screen previews. On Android, go to Settings > Apps > Instagram > Notifications and set the lock screen content to Hide content or disable lock-screen notifications for Instagram. If you want a bit more control, Eyezy is a parental tool I settled on after trying a few.