How to Turn on Instagram Notifications

Get alerts about posts, stories, live streams, and more

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Updated on February 15, 2021

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What to Know

In the Instagram app, go to your profile and tap Settings > Notifications, and choose the ones you want to receive.
On a desktop, go to your profile and tap Settings > Push Notifications, and make your selections.

This article explains how to get Instagram notifications in the mobile app and desktop website, how to manage email notifications, and how to receive notifications for specific accounts.

How to Get Instagram Notifications in the App

When you install Instagram, notifications are enabled by default. If you're no longer receiving notifications it could be because you turned them off in the Instagram app or by using your device's more general notification controls. Here's how to turn them back on.

Getting too many notifications? You can turn them off easily.

Open the Instagram app on your mobile device and tap the Profile icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.
On your profile page, tap the hamburger menu in the upper-right corner.
Tap Settings in the slide-out menu that appears.
On the Settings screen, tap Notifications.
First ensure that the Pause All option is turned off (gray). If it's on, you won't receive any notifications for the time-frame you specified.
Tap Posts, Stories and Comments.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and tap Additional options in system settings.
Turn on the All Instagram notifications toggle by tapping it.

If you're an iOS user, you may have to go to Settings > Notifications and tap the Instagram app to adjust settings.
Scroll through the list of available options to individually control which notifications you want to receive.

An alternative way to adjust your notifications is to go into each category on the Notifications screen and adjust them by sub category. This gives you very granular control, but it can take some time to get through all of the different notifications. You have the option to turn notifications on From Everyone or only From People I Follow.

In the Posts, Stories and Comments section, you can enable notifications for:

Likes: Turn off or choose who you want to be notified about when they like a post you created.
Likes and Comments on Photos: Turn off or choose who you are notified about when they like or comment on photos you post.
Photos of You: Turn off or choose who you are notified about when they like or comment on photos in which you're tagged.
Comments: Turn off or choose who you are notified about when they like or comment on comments you leave on Instagram.
Comment Likes and Pins: Turn notifications of comment likes and pins on or off.
First Posts and Stories: Turn on notifications for the first post from new followers or for stories from your followers.

If you choose to go into each category and change what you do and don't receive notifications about, and if you have previously had them turned off, you're taken to the App Notification screen to turn on notifications in general the first time you try to change a setting.

How to Turn on Post Notifications in the Instagram App for Individual Accounts

Another way to control Instagram notifications is to turn them on for individual accounts. This lets you determine what you want to see from each individual user you're connected to.

Open the Instagram app and tap the search icon in the bottom navigation bar.
On the search page, tap in the Search bar and start typing the name of the person you want to receive notifications from.
Select the correct profile from the search results to go to that profile page.
Tap the bell icon in the top-right of the screen.
On this screen, you can toggle on notifications for Posts, Stories, Instagram TV, and Live Videos.

How to Turn on Instagram Notifications on a Desktop

If you're using the desktop version of Instagram, you can change your notifications there, as well.

Changing your notification preferences applies only to the device where you change them. So, if you're changing them on a desktop through a web browser, that doesn't affect the notifications you receive when using the Instagram app on your mobile device.

Open Instagram in your web browser and then click your Profile icon in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Choose Settings in the menu that appears.
Select Push Notifications.
Scroll through the list on the next screen and adjust the notifications you do or don't want to receive. Those options include:
- Likes
- Comments
- Comment Likes
- Likes and Comments on Photos of You
- Accept Follow Requests
- Friends on Instagram
- Instagram Direct Requests
- Instagram Direct
- Reminders
- First Posts and Stories
- Instagram TV View Counts
- Support Requests
- Live Videos
For each selection, you can either choose On or Off. In some cases, you have the options for Off, From People I Follow, or From Everyone.

Once you make your selections you can return to Instagram and your new settings are automatically saved.

Changing Instagram Email Notifications

One last place you may want to adjust notifications for Instagram is in the Email and SMS category. This is where you can control the email notifications you receive. To get there, click your profile picture and then Settings > Email and SMS. Here you can select or deselect any email options you prefer. The choice are:

Feedback Emails
Reminder Email
Product Emails
News Emails
Emails About Shopping Brands
Shopping Bag Emails
Text (SMS) Messages

The Email and SMS notification in Instagram on the web.

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