Private account and follow requests

Make your account private

1. 1Open Settings. On a computer, select More at the bottom of the left menu, then Settings & privacy. On a phone, open your Profile, select ⋯, then Settings & privacy.
2. 2Under Your account, turn on Private account.
3. 3A box asks "Switch to a private account?" Select Make private.

You see "Account is now private", and the line under the switch changes to "Only approved followers can see your posts."

Switch back to public

1. 1In Settings, turn off Private account.
2. 2A box asks "Switch to a public account?" and tells you that anyone will be able to see your posts and follow you without approval.
3. 3Select Make public.

Making your account private does not remove anyone who already follows you. They stay your followers. To stop one person seeing your posts, you can block them.

What changes when your account is private

Hidden from people who do not follow you

• On your profile they see This account is private and Follow to see their posts. in place of your posts, clips and story highlights.
• Your posts are not shown in the For you feed, on Explore, or in post search results.
• Your clips are not shown on the Clips page or in clip search results.
• Your live streams and saved lives are not listed on the Live page.
• No public profile page is made for you, so search engines like Google do not show your profile.

What your approved followers see

• Your profile, the same as a public account's: your story highlights and the Posts, Clips, Polls, Voice and Creations tabs, and Members only if you sell a membership.
• Your posts, in the Following tab of their Home feed.
• Your stories, in the story row at the top of their Home feed.

Still visible to everyone who is logged in

• The top of your profile: name, username, photo, bio, school or college, links, tags and counts.
• Your followers and following lists.
• Your name, username and photo in People search.
• The Message button. Anyone can still send you a message unless one of you has blocked the other.

Notes, clubs, meetups and courses you publish are separate. Each follows its own settings, even when your account is private.

Follow a private account

1. 1Open the private account's profile and select Follow. (On a clip, the small Follow button works the same way.)
2. 2You see "Follow request sent" and the button changes to Requested.
3. 3When the owner accepts, you become a follower and the button shows Following. Their story highlights and profile tabs then open for you.

To cancel a request you sent, select Requested. A box asks "Cancel your follow request?" Select Cancel request, or Keep to leave it.

If the owner declines, the button shows Follow again and you can send a new request later.

Find the follow requests you received

All of these open the Follow requests page:

• Notifications: a Follow requests row sits at the top of the list. It shows the newest person and how many others are waiting, for example "@ravi.s + 2 others".
• Your profile: while your account is private, a Requests button shows next to Edit profile and Share profile.
• Settings: while your account is private, a Follow requests row shows under Private account.

You also get a notification when someone requests to follow you. Turn these on or off with Follows in Settings under Notifications.

Accept or decline a request

Each request shows the person's photo, name, username and how long ago they asked. Select the photo to open their profile first if you want to check who they are.

1. 1Open Follow requests.
2. 2Select Accept to let the person follow you. You see "Request accepted".
3. 3Or select Decline. A box asks "Decline this follow request?" Select Decline. You see "Request declined".

Sikhami does not tell the person that you declined. When there are no requests left, the page says "No pending requests".

Questions