How to avoid spoilers on X, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit and Instagram
Steps from each app's own help center, checked . Menus move, so each section links the help page it comes from.
Muting is the best tool you've got against spoilers, and every app's version has holes. Here's how to set it up on each one, and what it won't catch.
The short version
| App | Mute by word? | What it covers | What it misses |
|---|---|---|---|
| X | Yes: Muted words | Home timeline, notifications, replies | Search. X: “You will still see these posts via search.” |
| TikTok | Yes: a keyword filter, up to 200 words | For You and Following feeds | Search isn’t listed. Comment filters only cover your own videos. |
| YouTube | No | “Not interested” and “Don’t recommend channel” nudge recommendations | Search, comments, and channels you subscribe to |
| No | Muting a community hides it from Home, Popular and notifications | Spoilers in communities you haven’t muted, and untagged posts | |
| Partly | Suggested posts, by caption or hashtag. Hidden Words: comments on your posts and message requests. | Posts from accounts you follow |
X
X has the most complete mute of the five. On iPhone:
- Go to your Notifications tab and tap the gear icon.
- Tap Muted, then Muted words.
- Tap Add and type one word or hashtag. Add them one at a time: the show's name, its hashtag, and the names you'd see in a spoiler.
- Choose where it applies: Home timeline, Notifications, or both.
- Choose how long: Forever, 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days. Then save.
Muting isn't case-sensitive, and muting a word mutes its hashtag too. To hide posts that mention an account, include the @. On iPhone you can also select text in a post and tap Mute. To mute an account itself, use the ⋯ menu on one of its posts.
What it misses: search (“You will still see these posts via search,” says X), and anything written inside an image or video. If you turned on post notifications for an account you follow, muted words don't stop those.
TikTok
- Tap Profile, then the menu button (☰).
- Tap Settings and privacy, then Content preferences.
- Open the keyword filter (labelled Filter keywords or Filter video keywords, depending on your app version) and add the show's name and hashtags.
TikTok says the filter removes videos with those words, their variations and hashtags from your For You and Following feeds. You can add up to 200 keywords and let TikTok's AI catch similar words and slang. For a single video, long-press it and tap Not interested.
What it misses: search isn't among the feeds TikTok lists. Comment filters only work on comments on your own videos. TikTok doesn't say the filter reads text on screen or what's said in a video.
YouTube
YouTube has no way for viewers to mute words. Its “Blocked words” setting is for creators: it filters comments on their own channel. The closest tools, on iPhone:
- Not interested: on Home or Watch Next, tap More (⋮) next to a video's title, then Not interested.
- Don't recommend channel: tap More next to a video, Short or post from a recap channel, then Don't recommend channel.
- Notifications: tap the bell next to Subscribed and choose None for channels that post reactions right after an episode.
What it misses: these are signals to YouTube's recommendations, not filters. Search results, comments under videos, and thumbnails from channels you subscribe to aren't covered. Until you've watched, don't search the show.
Reddit has no keyword mute for readers either. What it has:
- Mute the show's community: on the community page, open the ⋯ menu and tap Mute r/[community]. Muted communities drop out of your Home feed, Popular and notifications. You can mute up to 1,000.
- Spoiler tags: a post tagged Spoiler hides its preview until you choose to open it. The poster or a moderator adds the tag, and a title that says “spoiler” is tagged automatically.
What it misses: you can still open a muted community. Spoilers posted in communities you haven't muted still show up, and untagged spoilers aren't hidden.
Instagram has two separate word tools, and they cover different things.
- Suggested posts: Instagram can hide suggested posts whose captions or hashtags use words you choose. Start from a suggested post: tap ⋯, then Not interested, and choose to hide suggested posts with certain words.
- Hidden Words: hides comments on your own posts, and message requests, that contain words you list. On instagram.com it's under More → Settings → How others can interact with you → Hidden Words → Manage custom words and phrases.
- Accounts: mute someone's posts from their profile, or press and hold their picture in the Stories bar to mute their Stories.
What it misses: posts from accounts you follow aren't filtered, and Instagram describes the suggested-post filter as a best effort (“we'll work to no longer recommend”).
What no mute list catches
- Pictures and video. Mutes match words in a post's text, not text inside a screenshot or a thumbnail.
- Search and trending. Searching a show's name shows you everything.
- Notifications from other apps. A news or entertainment alert lands on your lock screen before any mute list sees it.
- Group chats. Friends don't have mute lists.
Three habits help: mute before the episode airs (for a live show, that's the East Coast airtime; see Dancing with the Stars, spoiler-free for how that plays out), mute the names you'd see in a spoiler and not just the show's title, and on X use a 24-hour or 7-day mute so you don't have to remember to undo it.
In buzzinTV, the spoiler line follows you instead. Mark the episode you're on, and fan posts and clips about later episodes stay hidden until you've watched.
Get the appSources
Each platform's help pages, checked October 11, 2026:
- X: How to use advanced muting options, How to mute accounts on X
- TikTok: For You, Manage topics, Control your scroll
- YouTube: Manage your recommendations & search results, Manage YouTube notifications, comment settings (Blocked words)
- Reddit: What is community muting?, What are spoiler tags?
- Instagram: Stop seeing suggested posts with certain words, Hidden Words, Mute someone's story, New ways to control what you see
buzzinTV isn't affiliated with X, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit or Instagram.