How to Filter Comments on Instagram

Managing your Instagram comments can feel like you're trying to moderate the entire internet, but it doesn't have to drain your time and energy. By setting up the right automated filters, you can quietly remove spam, trolls, and negativity before you even see them. This guide walks you through every tool Instagram provides to create a positive, engaging comment section so you can focus on what matters: building your community.

Why Filtering Comments is a Game-Changer for Your Brand

Setting up comment filters isn't about ignoring feedback or creating an echo chamber. It's a proactive step toward building a better online space. When you take control of your comment section, you're not just deleting nasty remarks - you’re establishing a standard for how people interact with your brand - and with each other.

Here's why it's so important:

• Protect Your Community (and Your Sanity): Your comment section is a community hub. A constant barrage of spam or hate can drive real followers away. Filtering creates a psychologically safer space for people to express themselves and protects your own mental health from the daily grind of negativity.
• Maintain a Professional Brand Image: Nothing screams "unprofessional" like a comment section filled with spammy "DM for a collab" messages or crypto scams. Clean comments signal that you are an active, attentive brand that cares about quality.
• Improve Engagement Quality: When a post is flooded with hundreds of spam comments, the genuine conversations get buried. By filtering out the junk, you make it easier to find and respond to the comments from your actual audience, which strengthens relationships and boosts real engagement.
• Save a Ton of Time: Manually deleting dozens of spam comments every single day is a massive waste of your most valuable resource: time. Automation hands this tedious task back to the app, freeing you up to create content, engage with customers, and grow your business.

The First Line of Defense: Using Instagram's Hidden Words Feature

Instagram's most powerful moderation tool is tucked away in its settings, and many creators don't even know it's there or how to use its full potential. The "Hidden Words" feature lets you automatically hide comments containing specific words, phrases, or even emojis.

How to Find the Hidden Words Settings

First, you need to navigate to the correct menu. Instagram sometimes updates its layout, but these steps should get you there:

1. Open the Instagram app and go to your profile page.
2. Tap the hamburger menu icon (three horizontal lines) in the top-right corner.
3. Select "Settings and Privacy."
4. Scroll down to the section titled "How others can interact with you" and tap "Hidden Words."

You're now looking at your comment filtering command center. Let's break down what each option does.

Understanding the Key Filtering Options

Hide Comments and Message Requests

At the top of the "Hidden Words" screen, you'll see toggles for offensive words. When you turn on "Hide comments," Instagram will automatically filter comments it flags as potentially offensive, using its own list of known slurs, abusive language, and common spam. These comments aren't deleted, they are moved into a separate, hidden folder for you to review later.

You should absolutely turn this feature on. Below it, you'll also see a link for "Advanced comment filtering." Toggling this on makes Instagram's filter even more aggressive. It might catch some harmless comments (a false positive), but it's remarkably effective at catching tricky variations of spam and hate speech. We recommend turning this on for most business accounts.

Manage Custom Words and Phrases

This is where you get to build your personalized moderation fortress. This feature lets you create your own list of words, phrases, numbers, and emojis to automatically hide. If a comment contains anything from your list, it gets sent directly to the hidden comments folder.

To use it, tap "Manage custom words and phrases" and start adding terms. Add each term separated by a comma. You don't need to add variations like plural forms or different capitalizations, Instagram is smart enough to catch them. For example, if you add "scam," it will also hide comments with "SCAM" or "scams."

What Should You Add to Your Custom List?

Your list should be a living document that you update over time as you notice new trends. Here are some smart categories to start with:

• Common Spam Phrases: Think about every spammy DM you've ever gotten. Go on, get it all out.
  • Examples: free followers, check my bio, link in bio, DM me for promo, crypto, investment, get rich quick, shoutout for shoutout.
• Competitor Mentions: Some brands choose to hide comments that try to redirect their audience to a competitor. Whether you do this depends on your brand's philosophy, but it can stop competitors from poaching your audience directly in your comments.
• Negative or Abusive Language: Beyond the obvious curse words (which Instagram's main filter often catches), think about specific words trolls use to attack you or your community. This can be personal and highly specific to your niche.
• Irrelevant &, Self-Promotional Terms: Stop people from hijacking your posts to promote their own stuff.
  • Examples: .com, podcast, blog, my new song, check out my page, giveaway, visit my site.

So, Where Do the Hidden Comments Go?

Again, these comments are not deleted permanently. This is great because it gives you full control. Occasionally, the filter might make a mistake and hide a genuine comment.

To see your hidden comments:

1. Go to any one of your posts.
2. Tap on "View all comments."
3. If there are hidden comments, you'll see a light grey message that says, "Some comments may have been filtered..." and a link to "View hidden comments."

From there, you can see everything that's been filtered. For each comment, you can choose to Approve (making it public), Delete it permanently, or tap on the user's profile to Block or Restrict them.

More Than Just Keywords: Advanced Comment Management Tactics

Keyword filtering is your daily workhorse, but Instagram gives you a few other tools to handle specific situations and problematic users.

Block, Restrict, or Report: Know When to Use Each

• Block: This is the nuclear option. When you block someone, they can no longer find your profile, posts, or story. They are completely cut off.
  When to use it: For undeniable spam accounts, persistent harassers, or anyone who repeatedly attacks you or your community. Don't hesitate to use the block button. It's there for a reason.
• Restrict: This is a more subtle but equally powerful tool. When you restrict a user, their comments on your posts will only be visible to them unless you approve them. Their DMs will move to your Message Request folder, and they won't see when you've read their messages. Best of all, they won't be notified that they've been restricted.
  When to use it: This is perfect for the "annoying" follower. Think of the person who leaves vaguely negative or argumentative comments on every post but isn't outright abusive. By restricting them, you neutralize their ability to disrupt your community without the drama of an outright block.
• Report: If a comment or user violates Instagram's Community Guidelines (e.g., hate speech, graphic content, bullying), always report them. This helps Instagram take action and can protect others as well.

Turn Off Comments on a Specific Post

Sometimes, a topic is too sensitive or you know an announcement will cause an uncontrollable firestorm. In these rare cases, you can disable comments on a single post in advance or after the fact.

• Before Posting: As you're creating your post, go to the final screen before you tap "Share." Scroll down and tap "Advanced Settings." From there, you can toggle on "Turn off commenting."
• After Posting: Go to the post you want to moderate, tap the three dots menu icon (...) at the top of the post, and select "Turn off commenting."

Putting It All Together: A Simple Moderation Workflow

Knowing the tools is one thing, using them effectively is another. You don't need to spend hours a day moderating. Just build a simple process.

1. Start Your "Hidden Words" List Right Now: Take 10 minutes today to go into your "Hidden Words" settings and add your first 15-20 words. Start with a mix of spam ("promo," ".com," "followers") and any negativity you frequently see. You will feel an immediate sense of relief.
2. Do a Weekly Check-in: Once a week, spend five minutes looking at your "View hidden comments" folder on your latest posts. It's a goldmine of intel. If you see the same new spam phrase over and over, add it to your custom list! If you see any legitimate comments that were accidentally caught, approve them.
3. Be Decisive with Block and Restrict: Don't overthink it. Is it an obvious spam bot pushing crypto? Block without a second thought. Is it a consistently grumpy follower ruining the vibe? Restrict and move on. The goal is to spend less mental energy on these accounts, not more.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, filtering comments isn't about silencing people, it's about curating a space where productive conversations can happen. By using Instagram's built-in hidden words feature and being strategic with tools like Restrict and Block, you automate the exhausting work of moderation and let yourself focus on building a thriving, positive community around your brand.

After you've filtered out all the noise, engaging with the good comments becomes so much easier. Since keeping up with notifications across multiple apps is still a big challenge, we built our unified inbox in Postbase to bring all of your Instagram comments, replies, and DMs into one clean, manageable view. You can reply instantly, mark conversations as complete, and manage your community efficiently without ever missing an important message.