Did you know that there are ways to watch peoples Instagram stories without them knowing it? Normally, watching someone’s Instagram story will put your name on their viewers list. However, there are plenty of ways around this if you are wanting to watch Insta stories anonymously. In this post, we will go over some ways to view whoever’s story you want and they won’t have a clue you watched. Since you want be directly clicking and watching their stories, Instagram will never recognize the view or show them that you watched it. So, let’s get to watching.
We have all been there – you’ve accidentally clicked on someone’s story and didn’t want them to know that you watched it. Maybe it is an ex, a crush, or a co-worker… any of these could definitely lead to an awkward situation. While it may be too late after you already clicked and viewed, here are some tips on how you can watch an Instagram story you want to see without them knowing.
Half-Swiping on a Story
On the story right before the one you want to watch without your name showing up on their view list, you can do a half-swipe. This is a great method if the story is a picture, but it will not work on Insta stories that are videos. So if that is what you are looking for, go on to the next tip.
To half-swipe on a story you simply scroll to the next story without lifting your finger off the phone. When you see the story you are looking for, you swipe back before lifting your finger. This method will not register as a view on their list, but you will still get to see the posted photo. As stated above, this is perfect for picture stories but will not work for videos.
Secret Burner Account
This is a great method, if you have multiple Instagram accounts that are not linked to you. (And if you, you should get one!) Since there is nothing that relates to you on this account, you can easily view the story you want to watch. The only downside to this method is that if the person’s account you want to view is private, you will have to get permission to follow their account first. Although, we will discuss away around that later.
While this is a great method to view IG stories, it may be hard to keep your identity a secret. If the account you are viewing has a very limited amount of followers, then chances are they will notice your secret account and potentially block it. They still probably won’t know who it is though – just someone very interested in them.
Blocking Method
Speaking of blocking, here is one for an extreme scenario. If you happen to view an IG story and they can absolutely not know, you can block their Instagram account. Since they are blocked, they will not be able to see that you ever viewed their story.
There is a pretty big and obvious (not to mention awkward) downside to this method. Once you unblock them, you will have to click to follow them again which could lead to some questions. But, you could always say it was just an “accident,” you don’t know what happened, or “I thought we were friends on here – weird!”
Anonymous Instagram Browsing
Earlier, I mentioned that it would be almost impossible to watch an IG story of someone who had a private account that you were not friends with. Luckily, there are now plenty of tools online that can be used for just that. Websites like insta-stories-viewer.com make it possible to watch insta stories anonymously.
Don’t worry, there is no downloading involved with websites like this. You simply just go to the website and search the user that you want to view the story of. They do the rest of the magic for you!
What if the person’s story you want to view has blocked you? It doesn’t matter. With these online tools for viewing stories, you will still be able to watch any IG story that they put up – you can even download Instagram stories if you wanted to.
Phone a Friend
Maybe you have a best friend who knows your situation – whatever it is. While this could be weird, it works great. Just ask someone you know who is friends with the person that you want to view their story to share what it is about with you. Just try not to come off looking like a complete creep.
You could ask by simply phrasing it as that you think they blocked you from watching their story. So if they could tell you what it was that the person put on their story, it would be very much appreciated.
Last Minute Sneak Peak
Now, there will be times when you catch an IG story at the right time – right before the 24 hour period expires. Once that expires, the list of viewers goes away. So the closer you get to that happening and watch the video, the less likely the person will see your name on their view list before it expires.
Airplane mode
If you’ve ever wanted to see someone’s Instagram story without them knowing, this is probably one of the simplest ways to do so. One small drawback to using this method is to view someone’s story privately, you must be a friend. You can then set your phone to airplane mode to avoid Instagram from adding you to the IG story viewers list. This will prevent you from being able to see the story until you un the app and turn off airplane mode. You can access Airplane mode from the Control Center or the Quick Settings in the Notification Shade.
Once you have Airplane mode on, simply go back into the Instagram app and open the story your want to view. After seeing the story, you can exit and turn Airplane mode back off. Instagram will not know that you viewed their story and will show it as unseen.
How to View Someone’s Instagram Stories Without Them Knowing
One annoying aspects of Instagram, and many other social media apps like TikTok and Facebook, is the fact that you can’t watch a story of someone without them being able to see that you watched it. Fortunately, there are some tricks you can use to watch someone’s stories without them knowing you did so. Hopefully, you found some of that insight in this article and found a way to watch the IG story you were wanting to see anonymously.