Yesterday, Instagram globally released a new feature called “Instants” that’s designed for sharing authentic, disappearing photos. While the Meta-owned social network billed Instants as a new format to share real-life moments as they’re happening, many users are looking for a way to turn off the feature, especially those who have ended up accidentally sending images to others, not fully understanding how the feature works.

When you open up Instagram’s new Instants section for the first time by tapping the mini photo stack in the bottom-right corner of your inbox, the app opens up a brief introduction about the feature that informs users that Instants disappear, there’s no viewers list, and that reactions and replies are private. The app then quickly takes you through the process of viewing and reacting to Instants.

Once you get to the camera, underneath it is a shutter button, and below that is a toggle that lets you choose between “Friends” and “Close Friends.” By default, it’s set to “Friends.”

What Meta doesn’t immediately make users aware of is the fact that the moment you tap the shutter button, the photo that’s captured is automatically sent to everyone on your Friends list, unless you manually switch the setting to “Close Friends” beforehand.

Since the process of sending an image isn’t clearly explained, many users have ended up accidentally sending a photo to others they didn’t intend to. (It’s worth noting that Meta does offer an “undo” option once a photo has been sent, but it’s easy to miss because the whole experience of accidentally exposing yourself to others can be quite jarring.)

On an app like Instagram, where users are accustomed to reviewing and carefully curating their content before sharing it, the feature’s instant-send design has understandably frustrated many people, considering their privacy is at stake.

Unsurprisingly, many users are looking for ways to disable the feature. We’ll walk you through how to turn it off and how to unsend a photo if you accidentally shared one.

To turn off the new Instants feature, you need to go to your profile, click the three-line menu at the top right to open up your settings. Then, you need to scroll down to “Content Preferences” and then toggle the “Hide Instants in Inbox.”

Once you select this option, you will no longer see the Instants feature in your inbox. You also won’t see any Instants that people have sent you.

If you don’t want to turn off the feature altogether, you can hold down the pile of Instants in your inbox and swipe right to temporarily stop receiving them.

As soon as an Instant is sent, an “Undo” option appears beneath the shutter button, allowing you to quickly retract the photo before recipients view it.

Additionally, you can go to your archive by selecting the four-box icon located at the top right of the camera and delete an Instant to unsend it to friends who haven’t opened it yet.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/14/how-to-turn-of-instagrams-new-instants-feature-and-retract-photos-you-accidentally-shared/