How to get a notification when someone comes online on Instagram

iLS sends a browser notification when a contact you track goes from offline to online. Turn it on in Settings → Notifications, press Send a test, and use the Mute/Unmute button on each Tracker card to choose who can alert you. It works in desktop browsers and on Android, not on iPhone yet.

This guide covers turning alerts on, choosing who can send them, which browsers get them, and what each status in your alert history means when one didn't arrive. It assumes your Instagram account is connected and you're tracking at least one contact; if not, how to set up iLS covers that first.

How do you turn on alerts?

Alerts are set up per browser, from the browser you want them in.

1. Open Settings in the sidebar and find Notifications.
2. Press Turn on.
3. Your browser asks whether the site may show notifications. Choose Allow.
4. The section now reads "This browser is set up to receive alerts."
5. Press Send a test. A notification should appear shortly, and the page says "Sent — look for a notification now."

If the test arrives, you're done. From now on, when a check finds a contact online after a check that didn't, this browser gets a notification.

How do you choose who can alert you?

Every contact on the Tracker has its own Mute / Unmute button.

• Mute stops alerts for that contact. iLS keeps checking them, so their readings still build up on the Report.
• Unmute turns their alerts back on.
• Pause is different: it stops checking that contact altogether, so there are no readings and no alerts until you resume.

To silence everything at once without turning anything off, use Pause every device in Settings → Notifications. It quiets every browser on your account while keeping them registered, so switching it back is one click.

Which browsers and devices get alerts?

• Each browser is registered separately. Turning alerts on in Chrome on your laptop doesn't turn them on in Firefox or on your phone. Repeat the steps in each one. They're listed under Registered devices, where Remove unregisters one.
• Desktop browsers and Android work. Chrome, Edge, Firefox and other browsers that support web push can receive alerts.
• iPhone doesn't, yet. The page says "Push notifications aren't available on iPhone yet." You can still use the Tracker and Report in Safari; only the alerts are missing.
• Brave blocks them by default. Turn on "Use Google services for push messaging" in Brave's privacy settings, then press Turn on again. The page offers a link to that setting.

If the page says Notifications are blocked, you (or the browser) said no to the permission prompt earlier. Allow notifications for the site in your browser's site settings, then reload the page. Google explains this for notifications in Chrome, and Mozilla for web push in Firefox.

Why didn't an alert arrive?

Start with Recent alerts in Settings → Notifications. Each alert has a status:

• Delivered. It was handed to your browser. If you didn't see it, check that your computer or phone isn't in Do Not Disturb or a focus mode, and that the browser is allowed to show notifications at the system level.
• Failed to deliver. The browser's push service didn't accept it. Press Send a test; if that fails too, turn notifications off and on again.
• Held back (recently alerted). You'd already had an alert for this contact shortly before, so iLS held this one back rather than notify you twice in a row.
• No device to deliver to. No browser was registered when it fired. Turn alerts on in at least one browser.

If there's no entry at all, look at the contact instead. It may be muted or paused, or the Tracker may show Tracking paused, which means Instagram stopped accepting your saved session and you need to reconnect. It's also possible they never showed as online: if either of you has activity status turned off, there's nothing for an alert to fire on.

What can't alerts do?

• They're not a stopwatch. An alert fires when a check finds someone online after a check that didn't. iLS checks on its own schedule, so the alert follows the check, not the exact second they opened Instagram, and a short visit between two checks can be missed entirely.
• They don't reach iPhone yet. Only desktop browsers and Android.
• They need the browser running. On a computer, the browser has to be open, even in the background, to show an alert.
• They don't say what the person did. An alert means Instagram showed them as active. It says nothing about who they talked to or whether they read your message.
• They don't go to the other person. The contact isn't told that you get alerts.