How to Turn on Instagram Notifications

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

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

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.
In the slide-out menu that appears, tap Settings at the bottom of the menu.
On the Settings screen, tap Notifications.
On the Notifications screen, first, ensure that the Pause All option is turned off (gray). If it's turn on, you won't receive any notifications for the time-frame you specified.
Then, tap Posts, Stories and Comments.
Then scroll to the bottom of the page and tap Additional options in system settings.
On the System Settings page, tap Show notifications to turn on notifications for Instagram.
Then, you can scroll through the list of available option to individually control which notifications you would like to receive.

An alternative way to adjust your notification is to go into each category on the Notifications screen and adjust them by sub category. This gives you very granular control of your notifications, but it can take a bit of time to get through all of the different notifications but you have the option to turn notification 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've 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 are tagged
Comments: Turn off or choose who you are notified about when they like or comment on comments you've left 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 of notifications and change what you do and don't receive notifications about and if you have previously had your notifications turned off, the first time you try to change a notification, you'll be taken to the App Notification screen to turn on notifications in general.

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

One other way to control notifications on Instagram is to turn on post notifications 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.
On that person's profile page, tap Following.
Tap Notifications.
On the Notifications screen, you can toggle on notifications for Posts, Stories, IGTV, and Live Videos.
When you're finished, you can return to your Home screen, and in the future, you'll receive the notifications you selected for that person.

How to Turn on Post Notifications on the Desktop Version of Instagram

If you happen to be using the desktop version of Instagram, you can change your notifications there, as well.

Changing your notification preferences apply only to the device on which you change them. So, if you're changing them on the Instagram desktop app 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.
In the menu that appears, choose Settings.
From the left navigation menu, select Push Notifications.
Scroll through the list on the next screen and adjust the notification you do or do not 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
- IGTV View Counts
- Support Requests
- Live Videos
For each selection, you can either choose On or Off or in some cases, you have the options for Off, From People I Follow, or From Everyone.

Once you've made 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 click Settings > Email and SMS. On the Email and SMS page, 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