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Do unwanted accounts appear when you start searching Instagram? Here's how to delete Instagram search suggestions as you type.
It's the moment we all fear. Someone asks to borrow your phone to show you a post they liked on Instagram.
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They start typing in the search field and suddenly the suggestions are filled with all the embarrassing stories you've been secretly viewing. Their love for Bon Jovi's music is revealed and their friendship ends.
Frustratingly, there's no easy way to stop these Instagram search suggestions from appearing. You can delete your recent searches, but those embarrassing accounts may still appear when you start typing in the search field.
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What are Instagram suggestions when typing?
There is a solution, however, although it is not ideal. Here's how to delete Instagram search suggestions as you type.
When you search on Instagram, the search field is empty. However, below the search bar, you will see some accounts that you have recently searched for.
The goal is to help you quickly find those accounts again. You can remove these suggestions using the methods in the sections below.
However, when you start typing in the search field, Instagram will suggest accounts that start with that letter as soon as you type the first letter.
It's not exactly clear how Instagram populates this data, but if there's an account you visit a lot, it's likely to show up in search suggestions when you type the first letter of that account's name.
Why would I want to delete Instagram search suggestions as I type?
There are several reasons why you might not want some search suggestions to appear.
If you've ended a relationship, for example, you might not want your ex's account to show up every time you try to do a search on Instagram.
You may also have visited some accounts that you'd rather people not know you visited – and while you can use certain privacy features on Instagram, if someone else uses your phone, those accounts may show up when they do a search on Instagram. .
How to Delete Instagram Search Suggestions While Typing
The bad news is that there is no quick fix. There is no setting you can disable that will prevent Instagram search suggestions from appearing as you type.
If you search online, you will find suggestions for deleting your recent searches as described below, but this will not stop the search suggestions as you type; These recommendations appear when you first open search, before you start typing.
You may also see suggestions to use the “Report a Problem” option on Instagram to ask the company to delete your search suggestions, but there is no evidence that this works.
Suggestions like clearing your Instagram cache also seem ineffective.
There is, however, a workaround that may help, although it is not a quick fix. If an unwanted account appears when typing the letter “A”, for example, you need to click on other accounts in the suggestions that appear below.
If you do this enough, these accounts will appear more frequently in your search suggestions, replacing the account you didn't want to see.
You may need to repeat this for multi-letter combinations as well.
For example, if your account name starts with “AB,” you may need to click through some search suggestions for other accounts when you type “AB” into Instagram search.
Eventually, you will be able to prevent unwanted accounts from appearing.
How to Delete Recent Instagram Searches from the Search Page
While you can't delete the suggested search data, you can remove your recent Instagram searches, which can be useful if there are accounts you've searched for that you no longer want to see.
- Open Instagram and tap To search for icon.
- Tap To search for field at the top of the screen.
- If you've done searches recently, you'll see them listed under Recent.
- To delete a recent search result, tap the X to the right of the account name.
- The recent search is deleted.
- Repeat for any other recent searches you want to remove.
- If you want to remove all recent searches at once, tap see it all at the top of the list.
- In the upper right corner of the screen, tap Clean all to delete all recent searches.
Make Instagram more private
Knowing how to delete Instagram search suggestions as you type ensures that others can't see the accounts you're looking at when they search your Instagram account.
This ensures that your Instagram usage is a little more private.
