RouteGuard: Keep the Messages, Skip the Feed

RouteGuard keeps Instagram's messaging useful while removing the parts designed to keep you scrolling. Open Instagram and you land straight in your Inbox — not the feed. Messages, replies, and conversations work exactly as normal. But the Feed, Explore, and Reels are gated behind a short wait before they'll open. That wait isn't fixed. Every time you go around it, it gets a little longer. Ten minutes without opening the feed, and it eases back down. It's built this way on purpose: a flat delay becomes background noise after a few days. A delay that responds to your own behavior is harder to tune out. What it does: - Instagram opens to Direct Messages, not the feed - Feed, Explore, and Reels require a short wait to access - The wait increases the more you use it in a short window, and decreases the longer you go without - Login, account, and messaging pages are never blocked What it doesn't do: - It doesn't read, store, or send anything you type, view, or message - It doesn't track your activity or connect to any server — everything runs locally in your browser - It isn't a hard blocker — Instagram Messages stay fully usable, always Why it exists: Most blockers fail the same way: you eventually need Instagram for something real — replying to a message — you disable the blocker "just for a second," and it never goes back on. RouteGuard doesn't ask you to give up the useful part. It just makes the part that isn't useful cost a little more each time you reach for it. Open source in spirit: no accounts, no analytics, no ads, nothing collected.