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Why Is Instagram Not Showing “Last Active”?

If you’re scrolling through your direct messages on Instagram, you might have noticed that some users don’t have the “Last Active” status under their username.

Consequently, you might be wondering why this is the case.

It can be quite confusing because some users have the “Last Active” status while others don’t.

Moreover, there are many different statuses on Instagram—active now, active 1 hour ago, active today, active yesterday.

With that many statuses, it can be hard to tell the difference between them all.

But don’t worry, in this article, you’ll learn 4 reasons why some users don’t have the “Last Active” status.

  1. Limited to the first 25 users
  2. Activity status is turned off
  3. The person restricted you
  4. The person blocked you

Why Is Instagram Not Showing “Last Active”?

Instagram not showing last active

Instagram is not showing the “Last Active” status either because it’s past the limit of 25 users, the user has turned off their activity status, the user has blocked you, or the user has restricted you.

Firstly, if you scroll past more than 25 users on your direct message list, the “Last Active” status of the 26th user will not be shown.

Next, if someone turned off their activity status, it will be hidden from everyone.

Thirdly, if someone blocked you on Instagram, you can no longer see their status.

This will also hide their profile from you and make it unsearchable on Instagram.

Last but not least, restricting someone will hide their status from showing as well.

Let’s get to each one of these reasons in detail.

1. Limited to the first 25 users

Instagram last active

The first reason why Instagram is not showing “Last Active” is that the status is limited to the first 25 users on your direct message list.

The “Last Active” status will only be shown for the first 25 users in your direct messages.

Once you scrolled past the 25th user in your direct message list, you won’t be able to see the activity status of the rest.

If you scroll through your direct message list, you’ll notice that only the users that you’ve recently messaged have the “Last Active” status.

On the other hand, the “Last Active” status is not showing for the users that you haven’t messaged in a long time.

The “Last Active” status will be only shown for the first 25 users on your direct message list.

Once you’ve scrolled past the 25th user, the “Last Active” status won’t be shown anymore.

In other words, the “Last Active” status won’t be shown for the 26th user onwards.

I did a test and found out that this theory is true.

Here’s how the test went:

  1. I used 4 different accounts and scrolled down each of its direct messages.
  2. After the 25th user, the “Last Active” status is no longer shown.

This test confirmed the theory that Instagram has a limit to which the “Last Active” status will be shown, and that limit is 25 users.

2. Activity status is turned off

Instagram activity status

Next, if the user has turned off their activity status, you won’t be able to see when they are “Last Active” on Instagram.

If a user has turned off their activity status on Instagram, you won’t be able to see it.

Instagram has a feature where you can turn off your activity status.

You can access that feature by navigating to your profile > menu > settings > privacy > activity status > on/off.

When you turn off your activity status, it will be hidden from others.

However, you won’t be able to see other users’ activity status as well.

Hence, if someone turned off their activity status, the “Last Active” status will not show up under their username.

3. The person blocked you

Instagram blocked

If someone blocked you on Instagram, their activity status won’t be visible to you.

You won’t be able to see the activity status of a user that blocked you.

If someone blocked you on Instagram, the “User not found” error will be shown when you visit their profile.

If you were to visit their profile, there’ll be a “User not found” error.

However, you shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that the person has blocked you because it’s most likely not the case.

In order to know whether someone blocked you on Instagram, search for their username on Instagram.

If you can’t find their profile by searching for their exact username, then they’ve blocked you.

You can confirm this by searching for their username using another account.

If you can find them using another account by searching for their username, then they’ve blocked your main account.

In a nutshell, if you’re still able to visit the person’s profile, you’re not blocked.

4. The person restricted you

Instagram Restrict

Lastly, if someone restricted you, you won’t be able to see when they are “Last Active” on Instagram.

In other words, you won’t be able to see if the person is online.

If someone restricted you on Instagram, their activity status will be hidden from you.

Apart from the hidden activity status, you won’t be able to see if they’ve read your messages as well.

In addition, if you were to comment on an image posted by someone who has restricted you, it will be put on hold.

They can either choose to approve, delete, or ignore your comment.

It’s hard to tell whether someone has restricted you on Instagram or not because it’s very different as compared to blocking.

The only legitimate way to tell whether someone restricted you on Instagram is to comment something on one of their posts.

Then, use a secondary account to check whether the comment is there.

If the comment is missing, it means that the person has restricted you.

On the other hand, if the comment is shown, then the person did not restrict you.

Conclusion

The “Last Active” status is important because you might want to find out whether a user is deliberately avoiding your direct messages.

In addition, you can find out whether the person is currently using Instagram or not.

However, some users do not have the “Last Active” status.

In this article, you’ve learned 4 reasons why the “Last Active” status in not showing on Instagram.

Before jumping into conclusions, make sure you go through each and every one of those reasons thoroughly.

Then, deduce the reasoning behind the missing “Last Active” status based on their details.

Only then you can find out why the “Last Active” status is missing.

Further Reading

What Does “Active today” Mean on Instagram?

How to Fix Instagram Stories Not Showing Up

Why Did My Instagram Message Requests Disappear?

Author: Lim How Wei is the founder of Followchain. Feel free to follow him on Instagram.

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About the author

Lim How Wei

Lim How Wei is the founder of followchain.org, with 8+ years of experience in Social Media Marketing and 4+ years of experience as an active investor in stocks and cryptocurrencies. He has researched, tested, and written thousands of articles ranging from social media platforms to messaging apps.

Lim has been quoted and referenced by major publications and media companies like WikiHow, Fast Company, HuffPost, Vice, New York Post, The Conversation, and many others. One of his articles about the gig economy was quoted by Joe Rogan who hosts The Joe Rogan Experience (arguably the most popular podcast in the world), in the This Past Weekend podcast by Theo Von.

In his free time, Lim plays multiple games like Genshin Impact, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Hearthstone, RuneScape, and many others. He creates guides, walkthroughs, solutions, and more on games that he plays to help other players with their progression.