How to Clear Search History on Instagram – 2 Best Ways

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In case you might have lost your phone or want to put an end to certain friendships and would not like to be reminded of your most recent search history, worry not. You can go ahead and delete your Instagram search history faster than you think.

It doesn’t matter if you’re attempting to delete some info about a particular account out of the most recent searches on your device, or if you want to clear the entire search history.


Let me show you exactly how to clear search history on Instagram.

  • Via Instagram desktop – log in to the Instagram website, click “Search”, and from here, you can clear the search history;
  • Individual searches on the mobile app
    1. Click the search icon
    2. Tap on the search bar and
    3. Click “X” next to the search result you want to remove from the search history
  • Clear the whole search history via the mobile app
    1. Go to your profile page
    2. Click hamburger menu
    3. Choose “Your activity”
    4. Select “Recent searches”
    5. Click “Clear All”

How to Clear Search History on Instagram?

Delete Instagram search history from your desktop view

Let me guide you through the steps to take it from your own Instagram app or website. You can delete recent searches in seconds with a few taps from your profile icon.

Simply click on the Search button at the top of the page:

search button instagram

Once you have clicked right here, you will have a visible recent search history, so in the case, you would like to delete recent searches, you can do that here super easily.

Clear search history for both iPhone and Android

Once you have opened your Instagram app, now here you can tap on your search icon, which is located at the very bottom part of the screen.

search icon

After making your tap on the search icon, now you will see a search history page image list here. So, now you will see the exact terms you have previously searched for, and you will also see the Instagram names of the accounts and all the hashtags you have searched for:

search history

Right here you will be able to see, by the end of the different searches on Instagram, a vertical row of tiny X symbols. As you now tap on them, you will be able to delete Instagram search history part by part.

delete search history

OK, now go ahead and tap on the cross symbol, all the specific searches will disappear from your search history page.

Clear the Instagram search history entirely

Well, in case you might prefer, though, to delete the entire search history with a few taps, here you could tap on your Instagram profile icon for your profile page at the bottom.

From this point right here you can manage to tap in the upper-right corner directly onto the three horizontal lines or as we call it also the hamburger menu/menu icon.

instagram hamburger menu

A new menu will appear, and here you can tap on the activity status button.

your activity

This step will be followed by the appearance of yet another new menu bar with settings, and here you can tap on the recent searches button.

recent searches

The final step in this thread will be to tap the Clear All button, which is highlighted in blue in the upper-right corner.

clear all

Disabling Instagram Search History

One thing is for sure, there is no way to completely stop Instagram from saving your search history.

Sadly, Instagram has no incognito search option like Google Chrome has, so you will not be able to search without leaving a trace within your search bar.

So due to these given circumstances, though, you will find yourself in a situation where you have to manually clear your search history.

Privacy and restricting users from viewing your Stories

As you know, you have given your app access to some of your data, probably.

This means that each tag for geolocation you have made on the Instagram site or the Instagram app, each time you have tagged other users, or have entered a search term is memorized by the app.

Don’t worry as this is not a matter of security, your account data is safe, but it is merely there to follow certain parts of your account activity and interaction with your friends’ accounts.

Out of sight, out of mind. Just as we like to remove the search history item, which is related to a person/account we no longer wish to see, you can also do something about your own privacy.

See if you really do not feel like being watched, or spied on for whatever reason – I won’t judge, I promise – you can simply take away the power from that person and their ability to view your story.

Here’s how you can do that in a few taps only, so firstly, let’s tap on the hamburger menu icon.

hamburger menu

From here you can tap on the settings icon.

Now, from here, it’s time to tap on the privacy button.

privacy instagram

Upon entering the Privacy option, just tap on the Story icon.

story privacy

Now, here you can tap on the Hide story from the button. You will see a listing of all of your followers. Start typing the name of the account from whom you wish to hide your story.

hide story from

Conclusion

Instagram has not yet managed to create a feature that would allow your account to easily delete searched times from your browser, or hide these items permanently, regardless if you tap to log in from the website or the app.

Instagram searches will remain visible after each time you type in an item in the Instagram search bar.

You can easily and quickly, though, clear Instagram search suggestions in seconds via a few taps, and remove searches on Instagram by permanently deleting them.

For both iPhone and Android users, you will have to manually do it through a few taps from the hamburger icon, which you can find in the top right. Remove everything you do not wish to see any loner in the section for searching.

FAQ

Can I restore a deleted search from history on Instagram?

Sadly, you can not. Once you have tapped on the cross symbol, it is not possible to bring back an old search item.

If you visit the same accounts or hashtags immediately after the clear search, they will be saved once again in the history list.

How can I see all searches?

Once you have tapped on the search bar, you will be offered to see your most recent searched items. In the top right section, you will see highlighted in blue the button See All.

This will allow seeing the entire search history, from the most recent searches to the oldest ones.

Can I delete my Instagram search history without Internet access?

You can. Even if you don’t have Internet access and attempt to clear your search history on an Android or iPhone, they will be deleted.

Once you connect to the internet again, they will still be removed, as you have already tapped unconnected to clear search history items.

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Mell

Mell is one of the Stream Mentor's co-founders and a versatile content writer. She's helping other streamers get their visuals right, set the right panel, use the right lighting, install overlays properly and boost the stream quality to a great extent.

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