How to Remove Your Contacts From Your Instagram Account

Your contacts on Instagram are one of the factors that Instagram takes into consideration when making recommendations for other users you might want to follow. If you’ve given Instagram permission to access your contacts, it will be able to pair you up with those people. There are some people who don’t appreciate this feature, and if you inadvertently let Instagram sync your contacts, you have the option of erasing all of the contacts that were synced and preventing Instagram from further syncing your contacts.

How to Remove Your Contacts From Your Instagram Account

You gave Instagram permission to access your contacts when you signed up for an Instagram account. If you permit Instagram to do so, it will suggest users you may know from your contacts on Instagram as well as users you may be interested in following if you allow it to do so.

These suggestions can become very annoying, particularly if you have no desire to become Instagram friends with the people who have been sent to you as contacts. In addition to this, Facebook owns Instagram, so if you allow access to your contacts through Instagram, you are in effect granting Facebook access to those contacts through a backdoor. Therefore, you shouldn’t be surprised if people who are already in your contacts list make friend suggestions for you on Facebook.

You can disconnect your contacts from Instagram by following the steps below. This will allow you to regain control of your personal information, such as your contact list.

1. Open your Instagram app for iPhone and Android.
2. Click on your profile at the bottom to open your profile page.
3. Tap the menu icon at the top and select Settings from the listed options.
4. Click on Account, then click on Contacts syncing.
5. Toggle off the Connect Contacts option.
6. Lastly, click the Disconnect option.

How To Delete Synced Contacts From Instagram

When compared to disconnecting contacts from Instagram, deleting synced contacts is a time-consuming process. In this case, it could take up to ninety days for Instagram to delete all of your synchronised contacts, and during that time, you’ll still see suggestions for your contacts from time to time.

Here’s how to delete synced contacts.

1. Open your computer and access Instagram.
2. Click on your profile picture at the top.
3. Click Profile.
4. Click the Edit profile option.
5. Click the Manage contacts.
6. Tap on Delete all, then confirm the action by clicking the Delete option again.

You are unable to delete contacts that have been synced one by one. Consequently, the best course of action for you would be to delete them all simultaneously. Make sure that you do not grant Instagram access to your contacts in order to keep your contacts separate from Instagram. This way, Instagram won’t include any of your contacts in its pool of suggested friends to follow on the platform.