No matter what you use social media for, you probably have all your friends and family on there. And while you may love and respect those people, seeing every single thing they post online can make your life way more chaotic than it should be.
On top of that, you might even have contacts who post things that either don't concern you or actively annoy you. This is where the Mute button comes into play. So, in this article, we detail how to mute people on social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
How to Mute People on Facebook
Fortunately, Facebook allows you to easily stop Facebook friends and pages from taking over your News Feed. Not only can you filter out some of your friends' posts without unfriending them, but you can also get rid of posts from Facebook pages without unliking them.
In order to hide annoying posts from friends and pages temporarily, tap the three dots in the top-right corner of one of their posts, and click Snooze for 30 days. Keep in mind that these posts will reappear in your feed after this time period has passed.
But what if you want to unmute someone on Facebook? To "unsnooze" a friend, head to that person's profile on the desktop site, hover over the Snooze button at the top of their profile, and select End Snooze from the dropdown menu. The only way to unsnooze a friend from your mobile device is to hit Undo immediately after you snooze the person.
If you want to get rid of the user's posts for good, you need to unfollow them. When you're scrolling through your News Feed, simply tap on the three dots in the top-right corner of their post, and click Unfollow. You can also unfollow them by navigating to the user's profile page, hitting the Following button at the top of their profile, and then clicking Unfollow.
You can easily follow a person again by heading to your friend's profile, tapping the friendship icon at the top of their profile, and selecting Follow. The process of re-following Facebook pages from your mobile device is a little different---first, navigate to the page, select the three dots at the top of the profile, and tap Following > Default.
How to Mute People on Facebook Messenger
Choosing Messenger over Facebook already indicates that you prefer your social network clean and uncluttered. But there still might be notifications that you'd like to turn off.
In order to do that, open your conversation list and choose the thread you'd like to mute. Swipe left on the conversation, and tap the bell icon. You'll then get the option to mute the conversation for 15 minutes, one hour, eight hours, 24 hours, or you can silence notifications until you manually undo it.
To unmute someone on Facebook Messenger, you can do so by swiping left on the conversation, and tapping the bell icon once again.
How to Mute People on Instagram
After many requests from the network's users, Instagram (thankfully) added a mute button. In case you don't want to completely lose contact with those you follow, but just want to dial down their Insta-volume a little, you can now mute them.
To mute someone, tap the three dots in the top-right corner of a post. You can then choose from the following options: Mute Posts or Mute Posts and Story.
After you mute them, you'll still be able to see that person's posts by visiting their profile page, and you'll still get notified when they tag you in a photo---you just won't receive their latest posts in your feed. At the moment, you can only mute users on the app (Android or iOS), but not on the Instagram website.
When you want to bring a person's posts back into your feed, head to their profile, select Following > Mute and then toggle the Posts and Stories options off. If you can't remember who you muted, you can always find them by going to your profile, tapping the three bars in the top-right corner, and hitting Settings > Privacy > Muted Accounts.
How to Mute People on Twitter
Twitter also has a range of options when it comes to ignoring people---you can choose to either block, mute, or unfollow people.
In order to mute a user, go to their profile, click on the three dots in the top-right corner, and select Mute. Twitter will ask you to confirm your decision to mute, so hit Yes, I'm Sure on the next prompt. Alternatively, you can also mute a user by finding one of their tweets, clicking the dropdown menu arrow on the right, and choosing Mute.
If you change your mind, you can always go back to their profile, find the same menu, and select Unmute. You can also review a list of people you've muted on Twitter by going to Settings and privacy > Privacy and safety > Muted accounts. You can use this menu to unmute someone simply by hitting the Mute icon next to their username.
How to Mute People on Snapchat
Not so long ago, the only way to ignore conversations on Snapchat was to block a user or leave a group. The users would, of course, get notified of your actions. Luckily, times have changed and the platform now has two ways to secretly silence other users.
To get rid of notifications from a certain user altogether, swipe right to go to the Chat screen. Tap and hold your finger on the chat you want to mute. When the menu slides up from the bottom of your screen, select More > Message Notifications > Silent. This allows you to turn off notifications for one-to-one chats, as well as group chats. You still get the users' Snaps, but you won't get alerts about them until you check the app.
If you don't want to see a particular user's story, you can mute that too. Just like the above process, head to the Chat screen, tap and hold on a specific chat, and hit More > Mute Story. This prevents the user's story from showing up in your feed.
How to Mute People on Reddit
Once you learn how to use Reddit productively, it becomes a great and resourceful site. However, it can easily bring more clutter and spam into your online presence. If you're finding someone's messages or comment replies on Reddit annoying, you can simply block those users.
After you block a certain user, their profile, comments, posts, and messages will completely disappear from view. In order to block someone, select a person's username, and click the Block user button. Reddit will ask you to confirm your choice, so hit Block user on the next prompt.
If you ever wish to undo that, you'll have to access the desktop version of the site. Simply navigate to User Settings > Safety & Privacy, and then click Remove next to any user under the "People You've Blocked" heading.
How to Mute People on WhatsApp
Beyond Messenger, other messaging apps can become cluttered when your friends constantly spam you with tons of notifications. On WhatsApp, you can choose to turn off alerts for specific conversations.
To mute a chat on Android, click on a chat, tap the three dots in the top-right of the screen, and select Mute notifications. On iOS, swipe left on a conversation, and hit the Mute option.
You'll then have to pick whether you want to mute the chat for eight hours, one week, or one year. You can undo this at any time using the same menu.
How to Mute People on Telegram
Telegram has a similar option to WhatsApp for muting notifications from particular contacts and groups.
Click on a chat, select the three dots in the top-right corner of the screen, and hit Mute notifications. On iOS, go to the group or contact info and click Mute. You can then choose to mute a particular chat for one hour, eight hours, two days, or until you manually unmute it.
If you're getting sick of the notifications altogether, you might want to think about deactivating or deleting your Telegram account instead. This will definitely help you regain control over these messaging apps, and bring you some peace and quiet.
Are You Ready to Mute People on Social Media?
Don't worry, ignoring your friends isn't actually as bad as it sounds. Muting some of your contacts will help you dial down the number of posts you see on social networks daily and make your feed a little quieter.
The best part is, they won't even know that you're ignoring their updates. You, on the other hand, might finally start enjoying social media again.