I built Stay Unseen – a lightweight extension that blocks read receipts, story views, and typing indicators on IG, FB & Messenger

Hey everyone,

I built a lightweight privacy extension called **Stay Unseen** to get real control over activity signals across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger.

Normally, the moment you open a DM, watch a story, or tap a single key in the chatbox, the web app fires background network requests notifying the other party. Stay Unseen intercepts and blocks those specific outgoing event pings client-side before they leave your browser.

**What it does:**

* **Instagram:** Block DM "Seen" receipts, view stories/reels without logging your view, and suppress typing indicators. * **Facebook & Messenger:** Prevent read receipts, view stories anonymously, and disable typing status. * **Granular control:** Every toggle works independently—you can keep typing visible while blocking read receipts, or vice versa. * **Signal counter:** The popup shows exactly how many network signals have been blocked during your session. * **Unread persistence:** Optionally keep messages marked as unread in your inbox view.

It requires minimal permissions, runs strictly locally, and doesn't collect or transmit any user data.

**Store Link**

* **Chrome Web Store:** [**Stay Unseen**](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/stay-unseen-ig-fb-seen-bl/bfbajdhcgbnclhljgbcjficphhedlkje)

Would love for you guys to test it out and share your thoughts.