November 11, 2025
Instagram Won’t Alert You When Friends Go Online
Ever opened Instagram hoping it would ping you the second a friend comes online? Instagram’s interface doesn’t work that way. In fact, the app does not notify you when someone logs on. All Instagram will do is send push notifications for things like new posts or direct messages, not a friend’s online status. In other words, as one tech Q&A bluntly puts it, “Instagram does not offer official notifications when someone comes online”. Instead, Instagram relies on indirect cues. For example, if you and a friend both have Activity Status enabled, a green dot will appear by their name in
