To get rid of the Reels tab on Instagram on your iPhone, open Instagram inside minulo and turn on Hide the Reels tab in the Reels and Explore tabs settings. The tab disappears from the bottom bar, while your DMs, your feed and your friends' stories stay where they were. Hiding is free, with no subscription and no time limit.
I'm the developer of minulo, so keep that in mind as you read. I'll start with what Instagram and the iPhone already give you, because for some people that's enough.
Why you keep tapping it
You're holding the phone in one hand on the bus, a bag in the other. You want to check whether your roommate answered about dinner, so your thumb goes to the bottom of the screen. It lands one icon off. Now a Reel is playing at full volume, and the next one is already loading underneath.
It isn't a lack of willpower. The Reels tab sits in the bottom bar, right where a thumb rests when you hold an iPhone one-handed, and Instagram has been moving Reels closer, not further away. In October 2025, Instagram's head Adam Mosseri said the company was testing an option in India that puts Reels and DMs as the first two tabs. The iPad app opens straight to Reels.
So the question "How do I get rid of the Reels tab?" is fair. Here are the honest answers.
What Instagram and the iPhone offer
There's no Reels toggle for adults. Instagram has not announced a setting that removes, hides or moves the Reels tab, and I found none in Instagram's or Meta's own announcements as of November 2026. You can't rearrange the bottom bar either.
The Following feed helps, but only on Home. Tap "Instagram" at the top of Home and pick Following. You'll see posts from people you follow in time order, according to Meta. That calms the Home feed. It doesn't touch the bottom bar, so the Reels tab is still under your thumb.
Screen Time blocks the whole app. iPhone Screen Time can limit or block Instagram, but it works on whole apps, not tabs. Block Instagram and your DMs go with it. If your group chats or your club's announcements live in Instagram DMs, that isn't a real option.
So inside the official app, the Reels tab stays. That's the gap minulo fills.
How to hide the Reels tab with minulo
minulo opens Instagram's website inside its own app and hides the parts you choose. The official Instagram app is not modified.
- Install minulo from the App Store and open it.
- Tap Add a service and choose Instagram.
- Sign in on Instagram's own login page. minulo does not receive or store your password.
- Tap the gear next to Instagram. Under Reels and Explore tabs, turn on Hide the Reels tab. Turn on Hide Explore too if the search page pulls you into Reels the same way.
- Open Instagram from minulo's Home. The bottom bar no longer has a Reels tab, so the one-icon-off tap has nowhere to land.
Your DMs, your feed, stories and the notifications tab keep working. If you want to go further, there's also a setting called Every tab but DMs that leaves only DMs and notifications, but most people asking about the Reels tab just want that one tab gone.
Stopping the habit of opening the official app
Hiding the tab only helps if you actually open Instagram in minulo. Your thumb will still go to the old Instagram icon for a while.
For that, go to the Block tab in minulo and lock the official Instagram app with Screen Time. A block lasts up to 2 hours at a time for free. When you tap the old icon, the iPhone shows a block screen with an Open in minulo button, which takes you to the version without the Reels tab.
The limits, plainly
- The official Instagram app doesn't change. iOS doesn't let another app change what Instagram's own app shows. minulo's hiding works on the version of Instagram you open inside minulo. The official app will still have its Reels tab.
- Notifications don't arrive while the official app is locked. While an app is blocked with Screen Time, iOS holds its notifications too. If you count on DM notifications from the Instagram app, keep the lock short, or use the hidden-tab version without locking.
- iPhone and Mac only. There's no Android version.
- Pro is optional. Hiding the Reels tab is free. Pro adds Sleep mode, Work mode, Hard Mode, a daily limit and blocks longer than 2 hours. You don't need any of that to get rid of the Reels tab.
A quick way to decide
- If you mostly scroll Home and the Reels tab doesn't bother you, the Following feed may be enough.
- If you want Instagram gone for a few hours, DMs included, Screen Time does that.
- If you keep Instagram for DMs and friends' posts but keep tapping Reels by accident, open Instagram in minulo with Hide the Reels tab on.
There's a longer page with the sources (Mosseri's post, Meta's Following feed announcement, Apple's Screen Time guide) and a side-by-side table of what each option changes: Can you remove the Reels tab from Instagram's bottom bar?
If you try it and something on Instagram's page still shows a Reels entry I missed, tell me in the comments. Instagram changes its website often, and reports like that are how the hiding rules stay current.
