How To Tell if Someone Viewed Your Instagram

Beyond likes and comments, have you ever wondered if someone is secretly looking at your Instagram posts and rewatching your Reels and Stories? With so many useful features on the app, it’s fair to assume this piece of information is also at your disposal.

Unfortunately, there’s no magic metric that gives you a list of people stalking your account. But that doesn’t mean that you’re completely in the dark. You can look for indications that someone has looked at your content in several ways. Read on to learn how and get a few other useful tips regarding Instagram privacy.

How to Tell if Someone Viewed Your Instagram Posts

While you can’t see who looked at your Instagram posts, you can check who liked them. Users who like your posts regularly keep an eye out for your content or have turned on post notifications for you.

Check Your Likes

Since Instagram made changes to the Activity tab, keeping track of who’s seeing and liking your content is more difficult. You’ll typically see notifications in bulk, with only two usernames at the top, followed by a number. Nevertheless, you can still look at the complete list of accounts that liked your post.

1. Go to your Activity tab by tapping the heart icon in the upper right corner.
   
2. Tap the like notification and the app will take you to your post.
   
3. Press the “Liked by…” line under the post.
   
4. Browse the full list of users who liked your content.
   

Go Into Insights

Another way you can get some information about who is viewing your content is by checking your analytics. This won’t tell you who in particular looked at your content. However, it will give you great insight into your audience. You’ll also learn how many views your profile is getting. Instagram Insights are only available for business accounts. You can change your personal account to a business account anytime for free.

Here’s how it’s done:

1. Go to your Instagram profile and tap the three horizontal lines in the corner.
   
2. Choose “Settings”
   
3. Tap “Account” and scroll down to find “Switch to professional account.”
   

Once you’ve switched, you’ll be able to find the Insights tool right on your profile. Unfortunately, you’ll only be able to view the data of the posts that you made after switching to a professional account.

How to Tell if Someone Viewed Your Instagram Stories

While you can’t see who has viewed your profile, posts, or videos, you can indeed check who has watched your Instagram Story. This is the only feature where Instagram allows you to get this sort of information.

Check Your Current Story

To check who looked at your currently active Instagram Story, follow these steps:

1. Open the app and tap on your own Story on the main feed.
   
2. Swipe up your screen.
   
3. You’ll see the full list of accounts that viewed your story.
   

Unfortunately, Instagram Stories have a short lifespan. In 24 hours, your post will be gone, alongside the list of viewers, so don’t forget to check the list while you can.

Look in Your Archive

While your Instagram Story will only remain public for 24 hours, it will remain in your Archive. The list of viewers will no longer be available, except for a short period of time. If you’re lucky, the list will stay accessible for another day after the Story has expired.

Can Third-Party Apps Tell Me Who Viewed My Instagram?

The internet is brimming with apps and solutions promising to give you all the insight you want. However, you should remain cautious when interacting with such third-party apps. Instagram’s policy includes certain discretion regarding sharing data with third-party apps. In reality, those apps promising to tell you who is viewing your profile don’t actually have the insight they claim they have. Rather, they cause more problems than they’re worth.

Apps asking for your Instagram login info upon signing up may well steal your data. On the other hand, apps that require a subscription might steal your money. All in all, you should steer clear of third-party apps claiming to identify your secret admirers.

You may have also come across third-party apps promising to keep you updated about your followers. While these can indeed give you that information, you’re still taking a risk by giving them access to your account. In addition, it’s easy to check whether someone is still following you with the search function in your follower list.

How to Tell if Someone Is Stalking You on Instagram

It can be difficult to tell if someone is stalking your profile without any metric showing you who looked at your content. If you have your suspicions, you can use a trick to identify signs of stalking behavior, though. Of course, this will merely be an indication, but you may still find it useful.

1. Tap your icon on the main feed to add a new Story.
   
2. Here, find the gear icon to open the settings.
   
3. Tap “Story” in the settings.
   
4. Hide your story from all your followers except the person you think is stalking you.
   

Now, if you post a story, only that person will see it. For the next step, you’ll need the professional Insights tool we mentioned.

Having posted your story, keep track of the view count through the Insights tool. The count increasing will indicate the person looking at your story multiple times.

How to Keep Your Instagram Private

If not knowing who viewed your content bothers you, it’s a good idea to reconsider your privacy settings. While hiding your profile isn’t possible, there are other measures that will help maintain your privacy.

You can make your entire profile private, which will hide both your posts and your stories from anyone not following you. You can turn off your Activity Status so that your contacts won’t know when you’re online. Moreover, you can use Instagram’s “Restrict” tool to put some distance between yourself and a specific user. If you’re struggling with stalking, the “Block” button is also at your disposal.

Privacy Still Matters to Instagram

Instagram still takes privacy issues seriously by not revealing information such as who views your profile. While you can’t be sure if someone has looked at your Instagram, there are still a few indications to watch out for. Moreover, you can’t identify silent admirers, but you can certainly keep them away if the possibility makes you feel uncomfortable.

Do you think Instagram will ever let you see who viewed your profile? Do you think this would be a useful feature? Let us know in the comments section below.