DMs or Direct Messages are a great way to keep in touch with people on Instagram at a personal level. But the DM notifications can get suffocating after a point especially if you have lots of friends/followers who are constantly texting you (this works great if you’re a celeb).

Sometimes your phone endlessly keeps buzzing while you’re working off extra hours and those DM notifications are from your buddies who are having a great time on a Friday night. Or these buzzes are message requests from people you don’t even know.

Well, guess what, you can turn off both your DMs and Message Requests notifications. Here’s how.

First, open your Instagram profile page.

Then, tap the hamburger icon (three horizontal lines) on the topmost right corner on your profile page.

Look to the bottom of the sidebar that slides in and tap the ‘Settings’ option.

Select ‘Notifications’ on the ‘Settings’ screen.

Now, choose ‘Direct Messages’ in the notification settings.

On the ‘Direct Messages’ screen, the first and second options would be ‘Message Requests’ and ‘Messages’ respectively. Tap on the buttons next to ‘Off’ on both options so that these plain buttons now turn blue.

Now, every time you receive a direct message (DM) or a Message Request, you would not receive a notification. Instead, you can check your DMs in your own time (or never).