How to "Take a Break" from Instagram [Updated]

Ivana Kotorchevikj

Written by Ivana Kotorchevikj Social Media / Instagram

Linkedin Published 3 years ago / updated 3 months ago - 6 min read

Social media addiction is real. We are aware of how easy it is to just spend a couple of hours endlessly scrolling through your Facebook, Instagram or Twitter feed.

To show that they care about their users, Instagram recently introduced two new features “Take a Break” and “Daily Limit” - to remind users to stop scrolling on the app after a set time limit and break the endless scrolling. So if you feel like you need to limit your Instagram time, keep on reading to find out how to ''take a break' from Instagram and set a daily limit.

Update: The “Take a Break” option is now available both to iPhone and Android users.

How to set Daily Limit on Instagram

The Daily Limit feature allows you to set up a daily time limit, after which Instagram reminds you to close the app if you have reached it. To set it up, follow the steps:

1. Open Instagram and tap on your profile picture in the bottom-right corner.
2. Tap on the hamburger menu icon.

3. Select 'Your Activity.'

4. Tap on the Time Spent' tab.

5. Tap on 'Set daily time limit.'

6. Select the daily time limit, after which Instagram will remind you to take a break: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour, or 2 hours.
7. Tap on 'Done.'

If you reach your daily limit, you will get a notification in the app informing you about it and a reminder to close the app.

💡 Explore: How to Fix: "We Limit How Often You Can Do Certain Things on Instagram"

How to set up the “Take a Break” feature on Instagram

The 'Take a Break' feature will alert you if you’ve been using the app for the period of time you have set up and remind you to take a break.

You can choose to be notified to take a break after 10 minutes, 20 minutes or 30 minutes. Also, when the 'Take a Break' reminder pops up, Instagram will suggest activities you can do during your break, such as take a few deep breaths, write down what you are thinking, listen to your favorite song or do something on your to-do list. The reminder also gives you the option to set another reminder.

You can set up the 'Take a break' feature by following the steps below:

1. Open the Instagram app and go to your profile in the bottom-right corner.
2. Tap on the hamburger menu in the top-right corner.

3. Select 'Your Activity.'

4. Tap on Time Spent.'

5. Select 'Set reminder to take breaks.'

6. Choose how frequently you want the reminders to pop up — after 10 minutes, after 20 minutes, or after 30 minutes.
7. Tap 'Done.'

If you are scrolling through Instagram without a break, a reminder will pop up, encouraging you to take a break.

In case the "Take a Break" and "Daily Limit" features on Instagram don't help you in limiting the time you spend on the app, you might want to consider temporarily deactivating your Instagram profile.

✔️ Also, explore what it means when you see 'Instagram User' instead of a person's name on Instagram.

Conclusion

The 'Daily Limit' and 'Take a Break' features are useful if you want to limit the time you spend on Instagram, but have trouble putting your phone down. Instagram launched these features to help users take breaks from scrolling and focus on other productive activities.

In this post, we covered how to set up a daily limit and how to set up a reminder to take breaks on Instagram. The Daily limited feature reminds you to close Instagram after you've reached your set limit, while the Tak a Break feature sends you notifications to take a break and suggests useful activities you can do instead of using Instagram.

If these features don't help you limit the time you spend in the app, you can always choose to temporarily deactivate Instagram, and come back when you feel like it.