Are you looking to unfollow everyone on Instagram at once?
Maybe you have an old account that follows thousands of people and you want to unfollow them.
Or maybe you just want to clear your following list.
Either way, this article guides you on how you can mass unfollow users on Instagram into a clean state.
Just a heads up — you will not have to use a third-party app.
How to Unfollow Everyone on Instagram at Once
To unfollow everyone on Instagram at once, you can use the “Least Interacted With” feature on Instagram. This feature allows you to unfollow everyone on Instagram without getting action blocked.
The “Least Interacted With” feature is the best way to unfollow people as it is from Instagram themselves.
Try not to use any other methods other than the “Least Interacted With” feature if you’re looking to unfollow a large number of people.
You shouldn’t use any other methods such as using third-party apps or unfollowing users from your following list.
This is because you will end up getting action blocked.
If you’re using a third-party app to unfollow people, Instagram will know and block you from unfollowing more people.
This is because third-party apps allow you to unfollow people at a faster rate.
Due to Instagram’s consistent algortihm changes, automation does not work like it used to anymore, so you’ll have to forget about it.
Similarly, if you’re unfollowing people from your following list, Instagram will either impose an action block or disable your following list.
Since the “Least Interacted With” feature is quite new (as of 2020), Instagram isn’t imposing a restriction on its usage.
This means that you have the ability to unfollow everyone from the “Least Interacted With” tab.
Read on to find out how you can use the “Least Interacted With” feature effectively.
“Least Interacted With” feature guide
The “Least Interacted With” feature displays a list of users that you have interacted with the least in the last 90 days.
This means that if you haven’t watched someone’s stories, liked or commented on their posts in a while, they have a high chance of appearing on the list.
The list displays up to 50 users at once. So, you can unfollow up to 50 users on it.
Once you unfollowed everyone on the list, simply exit and refresh your profile.
By refreshing your profile, the “Least Interacted With” list will also be refreshed and you can follow another 50 users.
Here’s how you can access the feature.
1. Navigate to your profile, then tap on your “Following”.
2. Tap on “Least Interacted With”
When you’re in your following list, the “Least Interacted With” feature should be located at the top of the section, under ‘Categories’. Tap on the feature.
3. Unfollow as many users as you wish from the list.
After you are done, go back to your profile, pull down to refresh, and visit the “Least Interacted With” list again.
By doing so, the users on the list will reset back to 50.
To be safe, you should repeat the process up to a maximum of four times, which means that you should have unfollowed 200 users by the end of it.
The “Least Interacted With” feature is a way for Instagram to tell you who you should unfollow.
Since the feature is relatively new on Instagram, you can ‘abuse’ it without getting action blocked like you normally would if you were to unfollow people directly from your following list.
In other words, you can literally unfollow everyone from the list itself without getting penalized.
However, there are still some restrictions to be wary of which will be mentioned later below.
Why is the “Least Interacted With” feature missing?
Unfortunately, not everyone has the “Least Interacted With” feature.
Instagram’s CEO tweeted in early 2020 that they are still testing the feature, and it’s being rolled out slowly to everyone else.
Since the feature is relatively new (in the testing phase), only a small number of users have it.
Thus, some people do not have the feature yet as it’s only available to some people (at random).
That being said, the “Least Interacted With” feature is still the best way to unfollow everyone on Instagram without getting action blocked.
Since the feature is in the testing phase, it has little to no restrictions.
This means that you can unfollow a large number of people without fear of getting action blocked or your following list disabled.
If you do have the “Least Interacted With” feature, you can make use of it now before its too late (rolled out to everyone).
If you don’t have the feature, there are other methods you can use to mass unfollow users on Instagram which will be mentioned below.
How to unfollow everyone on Instagram without the “Least Interacted With” feature
There are other methods you can use to mass unfollow users if you don’t have the “Least Interacted With” feature.
The first way you can unfollow everyone on Instagram without the feature is to manually search and unfollow users.
This is can be quite time-consuming, but you’ll have to make do with it if you don’t have the feature yet.
One thing to note is that you should never unfollow users directly from your following list or you have a high chance of getting action blocked.
If you really want to unfollow users from your following list, be sure to unfollow users in intervals.
For example, you should unfollow no more than 5 users per minute.
If you want to mitigate the action block entirely, you should only unfollow one user every minute or so from your following list.
The second way to unfollow everyone on Instagram without the “Least Interacted With” feature is to use the “Sort by” feature.
The feature can sort users that you’ve followed the earliest and the latest.
You can use this feature if you want to keep track of accounts that you followed in the past which might be inactive now.
However, you cannot unfollow a large number people at one go from that list or you will be action blocked.
Similar to the first method, you’ll have to stick with unfollowing others in intervals.
If you do get action blocked, you’ll have to wait for 24 hours or more for it to be lifted. This will be a huge hindrance as you cannot unfollow more people.
At the end of the day, if you want to mass unfollow people on Instagram, you must utilize the “Least Interacted With” feature.
Otherwise, you’ll have to unfollow others in intervals to prevent being action blocked.
Is there an unfollow limit on Instagram?
The unfollow limit on Instagram is 200 users per day.
You can unfollow up to 200 users per day on Instagram.
Try not to exceed the unfollow limit or you may be action blocked.
If you happen to be action blocked, it usually lasts for several hours, 24 hours, or more.
This will obstruct your unfollowing efforts.
Instagram will action block you if you happen to follow too many users at once.
This is because they will think that you’re either a bot or using automation.
But don’t worry, the action block is temporary and will be eventually lifted.
Who should you unfollow?
It’s important to unfollow the right people on Instagram.
If you unfollow the wrong people (e.g. people that have been consistently liking your posts), it will negatively affect your engagement rate as they might unfollow you back.
Instead of unfollowing everyone on Instagram, you should only unfollow those who negatively affect your account.
The first type of people you should unfollow is inactive people. Those are the ones that no longer post on Instagram.
Moreover, if they are a mutual follower, they’ll not interact with your posts.
If that’s the case, the best thing you can do is to not only unfollow, but to remove them as a follower as well.
To remove someone as a follower, go to your list of followers, search for their username, and tap on ‘Remove’.
The second type of people you should unfollow are those who overpost. People who overpost will flood your feed unnecessarily.
If you’re following too many people who overpost, you might miss the posts from others that you care about.
In other words, it’ll be harder to stay updated with the posts on your feed.
If you’ve been consistently liking everyone’s posts on your feed, people who overpost will make it more challenging.
Your best bet is to either mute or unfollow those people.
Risks from unfollowing everyone on Instagram
Although this article is about unfollowing everyone on Instagram, it’s highly recommended that you don’t.
This is based on two reasons.
Firstly, unfollowing everyone on Instagram is a selfish act. This is especially so if the majority of the people you’re following are your friends or family.
Some people might be offended or perplexed as to why you unfollowed them.
It’s important to remain followed especially if you know the person. Otherwise, they might think that you have something against them.
Moreover, unfollowing someone mutual means that their posts will no longer show up on your feed. So you won’t be able to interact with their posts or stories unless you deliberately go to their profile.
This is very wrong especially if the person have been consistently liking your posts.
It’s important to follow back and engage because you’ll want others to do the same. Not following and engaging back is extremely one-sided because it only benefits one person.
Though your followers/following ratio is important, it’s best to strike a balance and not go overboard.
As a general guideline, having a 1:1 followers/following ratio is respectible because it shows that you’re not egocentric.
On Instagram, how much you’re engaging correlates to how much engagement you’ll receive.
Hence, you can’t expect people to like your posts when you’re not liking theirs.
On the other hand, if you’re playing the follow/unfollow game, it’s natural that you’ll have to unfollow some people, but try not to unfollow everyone.
Secondly, you might lose a lot of followers. Most people have an Instagram analytics app on their device.
This means that they can track their unfollowers, people that are not following back, and so on.
If you were to mass unfollow people, most of them will know and unfollow you.
At the end of the day, if you’re hoping for more followers and engagement on Instagram, you’ll have to follow others back and reciprocate likes.
Hence, you should only unfollow everyone on Instagram if you’re aware of these risks.
Conclusion
In the past, unfollowing everyone on Instagram takes a long time because you’ll be action blocked.
Because of this, you’ll have to unfollow people in intervals.
Since the introduction of the “Least Interacted With” feature in early 2020, you now have the ability to unfollow up to 200 people a day without the fear of getting action blocked.
If you’re looking to unfollow everyone on Instagram at once, you can use the “Least Interacted With” feature in your following list.
However, if you don’t have the feature, it might not be released to you yet as it is still in the testing phase.
If that’s the case, you’ll have to wait until it’s rolled out to everyone.
Further reading
Here are some articles that you might be interested in.
> Hot ? How to Know If You Are Shadowbanned on Instagram
> How to Find Inactive Instagram Followers (And Remove Them)
> How to Get Followers on Instagram Without Posting
Author: Lim How Wei is the founder of Followchain. Feel free to follow him on Instagram.
