Instagram will sometimes suggest accounts of people who you might know. These are based on factors such as:

Because Instagram’s suggestion algorithm can factor in people viewing your profile, some people may also think that “who you might know” indicates stalking. This is a myth.

These suggestions can also be invasive and annoying for some people. Instagram can frequently flood your notifications with them. Thankfully, you can disable Instagram’s “who you might know” suggestions through the app.

Here’s more detailed information on Instagram’s “who you might know” suggestions, what influences them, how to change or disable them, and if these suggestions can tell you anything about people viewing your profile.

Instagram’s Follow Suggestions Explained

As an integral part of Instagram’s app experience, you may want to know more about the nuts and bolts of Instagram’s “who you might know” suggestions for several reasons, including:

Instagram’s “who you might know” suggestions also have a reputation for being irksome. Large lists of these suggestions tend to clog up phone and Instagram app notifications. So, you may also want to know how to disable it.

Thankfully, most information on Instagram’s “who you might know” feature, including how to change and disable it, is very straightforward. More on this below.

How Can I Disable Instagram’s “Who You Might Know” Follow Suggestions?

Whether for protecting your privacy or ending an annoying slew of notifications, disabling Instagram’s “who you might know” suggestions is no big hassle.

Here are a few different ways to do this:

Turning off Account Suggestions

1. On your Instagram app, tap on your Profile icon on the bottom-right of the screen.

2. Tap on the three lines in the top-right corner of the screen.

3. A new menu will appear. Tap on Settings and privacy.

4. Tap on Notifications.

5. Tap on Following and Followers.

6. Under Account Suggestions, select Off. This will stop Instagram from sending “who you might know” suggestions on your push notifications.

Turning off all Instagram notifications through the app

1. On your Instagram app, tap on your Profile icon on the bottom-right of the screen.

2. Tap on the three lines on the top-right corner of the screen.

3. A new menu will appear. Tap on Settings and privacy.

4. Tap on Notifications.

5. Tap on the switch next to Pause All.

6. Select how long you want to pause your notifications.

7. Once the switch next to Pause all turns blue, all your Instagram notifications are now paused. You will not receive “who you might know” notifications.

How Can I Stop Appearing on “Who You Might Know” Suggestions?

You can appear in other users’ “who you might know” suggestions, allowing them to follow you even if they’re complete strangers. This is usually because of similar account activity, such as liking the same post or having a similar set of followed accounts.

If you don’t want to be suggested to other users, you can stop Instagram from doing this by disabling the option in your Profile.

Alternatively, you can also set your profile to private so that anyone who tries to follow you through “who you might know” will need to send a request first. You can accept or deny these requests to protect your privacy.

Here’s how to do both options:

Disabling “Show account suggestions on profiles”

1. Open your device’s browser. This is usually Google Chrome or Firefox for Android devices, and Safari for iOS devices.

2. Go to www.instagram.com. This will take you to Instagram’s main website.

3. Log in to your Instagram account. Once you’ve logged in, you should see a homepage similar to the main screen of the Instagram app.

4. Tap on your Profile in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

5. Tap on Edit Profile.

6. Scroll down until you see Show account suggestions on profiles.

7. Tap on the checkmark to disable this feature. Your Instagram account will no longer be suggested to others.

Making your account private

Note: This only works for personal accounts. The steps below will not work for professional accounts unless you switch back to a personal account.

1. On your Instagram app, tap on your Profile icon on the bottom-right of the screen.

2. Tap on the three lines on the top-right corner of the screen.

3. A new menu will appear. Tap on Settings and privacy.

4. Scroll down until you see Account privacy.

5. Tap on the switch beside Private account.

How Can I Influence Instagram’s “Who You Might Know” Follow Suggestions?

As mentioned earlier, Instagram’s suggestion algorithm uses your personal data, account information, and account activity to generate its “who you might know” suggestions. The process is similar to curating your post suggestions (explained here).

To influence your Instagram’s follow suggestions, you’ll only need to make personal changes in the factors that affect Instagram’s suggestion algorithm. These changes can include:

By optimizing these factors that influence Instagram's algorithm, you can shape the "who you might know” suggestions to better match the types of accounts and people you want to follow.

Does “Who You Might Know” Indicate Stalking?

No, “who you might know” suggestions don’t indicate stalking.

While Instagram’s algorithm can factor in people who’ve viewed your account, this doesn’t mean that it will automatically suggest the people who’ve viewed your account.

It’s also hard to confirm whether someone has viewed your account just from “who you might know” suggestions. This is because Instagram makes these suggestions based on a variety of other determinants, such as having similar followed accounts.

Yes, your Snapchat location automatically turns off when your phone dies. Snapchat cannot access your phone’s location without power. However, your last known location will still be displayed on Snap Map for about 8 hours.

If your phone is off for more than 8 hours, your Bitmoji will disappear from your friends’ maps. So, if you want to save battery but keep your Snapchat friends updated on your location, it’s best to turn on your phone once within an 8-hour window.

However, if you want to keep your location hidden, turning off your phone is not an effective way to do it, especially if you plan on hiding your location while staying somewhere for less than 8 hours.

Here are more details on when Snapchat tracks your location and the most effective ways to hide it:

Does Snapchat Location Turn Off When My Phone Dies?

In certain situations, Snapchat is forced to stop tracking your location on Snap Map. One common situation is your phone dying when you manually shut it down or when it runs out of battery.

This is because Snapchat can only update your information by accessing your phone’s location data. While your phone is off, your Internet service is also off, which means your phone can’t transmit its GPS location to apps and services like Snapchat.

Your phone also doesn’t draw any power while turned off. Without power, apps that update your location like Snapchat can’t use any processing memory needed to track your location.

Can My Friends Still See My Snapchat Location While My Phone Is Off?

While your phone is off, Snapchat will continue to show your last known location on Snap Map for about 8 hours.

Your Bitmoji can still be seen on Snap Map, although it won’t appear to be moving on your friends’ maps. Friends directly looking you up can also only see your last known location.

If your phone remains shut down for more than 8 hours, Snapchat will stop showing your last known location.

Your Bitmoji will simply disappear from Snap Map, which means your friends will not be able to see you on their map screen or when trying to search for you on their Snap Map.

Is Turning Off My Phone a Good Way to Hide My Snapchat Location?

Trying to keep your location a secret by temporarily shutting down your phone is not recommended.

Shutting down your phone to hide your location while staying somewhere for less than 8 hours won’t work, because your last known location will still be visible for about 8 hours.

Unless you’re planning to keep your phone shut down for 8 hours, this is an inconvenient way to hide your location. There are other ways to easily and immediately hide your Snapchat location, which we’ll get into below.

When Is Location Turned Off on Snapchat?

Here are other situations when Snapchat stops tracking your location:

* Note: Turning on Ghost Mode only stops updating your Snap Map. Your location can still be seen on any filters, tags, or stickers that rely on your real-time location. Snaps you publicly submit to Snap Map will also reveal your Snap’s location.

As long as your phone is on and Snapchat is allowed to access your phone’s location data (while not on Ghost Mode), your real-time location will be updated on Snap Map, allowing your Snapchat friends to see where you are.

Your location is also updated even when Snapchat is not in use and not open in the background. Closing the app will not stop it from tracking your location and updating it on Snap Map.

What Are Effective Ways to Hide My Snapchat Location?

Hiding your Snapchat location involves either manually restricting Snapchat’s access to your location or using Snapchat’s built-in location hider, Ghost Mode.

Here’s how to do both methods:

1. Turning on Ghost Mode

Ghost Mode hides your location from appearing on the Snap Map. Friends will not be able to see your Bitmoji avatar moving around on their map.

However, Ghost Mode does not stop your location from being attached to tags, filters, stickers, and other features that use your real-time location. For best results, avoid using any feature that relies on your real-time location.

To turn on Ghost Mode:

1. Open Snapchat
2. Go to your Map. This can be accessed by tapping on the map marker symbol, which is the leftmost icon at the bottom of the screen.
3. Tap the gear icon on the top-right corner to access your Location Settings.
4. Ghost Mode will appear on the topmost part of the screen. Tap on the switch next to it.
5. This opens a new window showing you options for Ghost Mode’s duration: 3 hours, 24 hours, or until you turn off Ghost Mode. Tap on your desired duration.
6. When you’ve selected your desired location, the section below Ghost Mode will gray out and its switch will appear green or blue. This means Ghost Mode is now on.

Once you’ve done all the steps above, your Bitmoji on the Map should now have a blue ghost icon on their head. Only you can see this. This means your location is now hidden from Snap Map and your friends can’t see your Bitmoji on their maps.

2. Restricting Snapchat’s Access to Your Location

You can go to your phone's location services settings and deny Snapchat access to your location data. This will prevent Snapchat from updating your location at all. Keep in mind this will affect any location-based filters and features in Snapchat.

To restrict Snapchat's location access on iPhone:

1. Open Settings

2. Go to Privacy & Security

3. Go to Location Services

4. On the list of apps, scroll down and tap on Snapchat.

5. You’ll see these options: Never, Ask Next Time or When I Share, and While Using the App.

a. To hide your location until you return permissions, select Never.

b. To allow Snapchat to use your location only while the app is open, select While Using the App.

c. To pause it only for specific sessions, select Ask Next Time or When I Share. Snapchat will ask for permission every time you open the app.

To restrict Snapchat's location access on Android:

1. Open Settings.

2. Go to Location,

3. Tap on App permissions.

4. Scroll down the list of apps and tap on Snapchat.

5. You’ll see these options: Allow only while using the app, Ask every time, and Don’t allow. 

a. To hide your location until you return permissions, select Never.

b. To allow Snapchat to use your location only while the app is open, select While Using the App.

c. To pause it only for specific sessions, select Ask Next Time or When I Share. Snapchat will ask for permission every time you open the app.

Yes, WhatsApp is used for dating, mainly for these two reasons:

However, dating on WhatsApp also has some downsides. It’s impossible to stop WhatsApp from displaying the phone number you’ve used to sign up (which is most people’s real phone number), and dating groups are often infiltrated by scammers.

Here’s further detail on the advantages and disadvantages of using WhatsApp for dating:

Is WhatsApp Really Used for Dating?

WhatsApp is frequently used for dating, as it’s the most popular messaging app in many countries. If someone finds a match through a dating app or site, chances are they can readily connect on WhatsApp if they think that they’re a good fit.

The most popular way people use WhatsApp for dating is as a superior chat platform to dating apps and sites. It fills the space between Tinder and Facebook. It’s not too intimate and exposing like Facebook and has more chat features than Tinder.

Dating groups are another way WhatsApp is used for dating. There are hundreds of public dating groups anyone can join to find a match. You can access lists of these groups and their links with a quick Google search.

However, using WhatsApp for dating also has some downsides. One downside is the likelihood of encountering scams, especially when using WhatsApp groups to date. Another is privacy, as WhatsApp makes your real number visible to everyone.

Pros of Using WhatsApp for Dating

1. Convenience

According to data, WhatsApp is one of the fastest-growing and most widely used messaging apps, making it the go-to platform for keeping in touch with a good date for many people.

It’s also free, allowing you to use many of its date-enhancing features without needing to pay for a premium service.

This is not the case for many dating apps and sites, so a lot of people think of moving to WhatsApp or a similar messaging app after meeting a good match rather than paying for their dating platform’s chat service.

2. Chat Features

Having many ways to mingle with someone online helps conversations stay interesting and move at a relationship-building pace. WhatsApp has many features that are useful for both casual and intimate dating conversations:

You can also disable read receipts, online status, and last status tags on WhatsApp, as well as specify which ones to hide these details from.

WhatsApp also lets you block users. These features help maintain distance between you and someone you just met.

3. Discreet (in Public)

WhatsApp provides more discretion than dating apps if you want to chat with someone you just met, but don't want others to know it's a date.

For example, if you exchange numbers with someone, you can chat on WhatsApp later without pulling out a dating app in public that shows your romantic intentions.

WhatsApp also isn’t awkward to show in public like Tinder or Snapchat. It has no attached “stigma” and its interface looks like most other messaging apps. This allows you to chat with your date in public without worrying about getting awkward looks.

4. Works on Multiple Devices

WhatsApp allows you to seamlessly message between your smartphone, tablet, desktop computer, and web browser.

This makes it very convenient for coordinating and chatting with dates, even if you switch devices. You can start a conversation on your phone, and easily continue it from your laptop later.

It also enables voice and video calls from devices other than your phone. So, a WhatsApp video chat with your date could be from your computer screen for better image quality and comfort.

5. Security

Knowing that no one can access and see intimate texts, pictures, and videos you send is important, especially when dating.

To keep your conversations secure, WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption for messages, voice calls, and video calls.

This provides more privacy than regular SMS or phone calls, as hackers will have a much harder time gaining access to your messages on WhatsApp.

Cons of Using WhatsApp for Dating

1. Scams

WhatsApp dating groups can be magnets for romance scams and catfishing attempts.

While WhatsApp requires a number to register and use its service, scammers still find ways to join these public groups and connect with unsuspecting people looking for dates.

The most common way scammers work is to gain people's trust through sweet talking and building an emotional connection. Then, they will eventually ask for money or gifts, or try to lure people into shady investment opportunities or travel deals.

Some red flags to watch for are people who:

2. Privacy

WhatsApp makes the phone number you used to register visible to everyone you connect with. For many people, that’s the main phone number they use for other accounts.

It’s not possible to hide this, so anyone can use this information to look you up on other social media platforms that display your phone number.

Having your real number out there also makes you susceptible to spam calls and texts from shady third parties. So, WhatsApp provides fewer privacy controls and anonymity compared to keeping chats isolated within a dating app.

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