Photo: ALEX_UGALEK (Shutterstock)
Since their 2016 rollout, Instagram Stories have been a phenomenon. Users can post freely about their day, their interests, their thoughts, their outfits, their accomplishments, and more—without having to consider whether the information is worth going on the grid or the anxiety that comes with waiting for the public likes and comments to roll in. Stories disappear after 24 hours, so they’re just temporary bursts of information with no real drawback.
What they lack in public-facing stressors, though, they make up for in private: The poster of a Story can see everyone who looks at it, which is not true for grid posts. This in itself can be fraught. If your ex is posting on their Story a bunch, you obviously want to know what they’re sharing, especially since you only have 24 days to figure it out—but you don’t want them to know that you want to know!
Yes, you can have your cake and eat it, too. Here are a few ways.
Make a creeping account
Creeping accounts are super common. Call them creepers, burners, install, or whatever you want, but they serve the same purpose: This account can be more anonymous, and no one has to know it’s you. Kim Kardashian employs this method, for instance, and copped to it in a podcast interview released earlier this week.
There are some drawbacks to burner accounts.
Second, if the person you want to creep on has a private account, you’re going to have to request to follow them. (It’s clearly a burner.) What you can do, of course, is craft a hefty fake persona and spend a lot of time creating a false life for it by posting a lot, gaining followers, and generally being active. Still, even if you create an absolutely robust fake account for a phony person, why would the person you want to creep grant your alter ego access to their private account?
Burner accounts really only work if you want to see the Story of someone with a public account. Be warned, of course, if they get few views or are just (rightfully) paranoid, they may block you after seeing an account they don’t recognize on the list. Unless you…
View the story, then block the person
Use this method on people you don’t follow, whether you use your real account or a burner. If you view a Story, then immediately block the poster, they won’t see your name on the list unless they happen to be looking in that split second before you finalize the block. If their story is long, this could be a concern, as your name will be visible on the first slides for however long it takes you to view the final ones.
This is a tried-and-true method. After 24 hours are up, unblock them and view the new Story, then block them again.
Try to only do this with a creeping account, however, because if you do it on your real one and the person in question gets suspicious, searches for your account, and finds that they’re blocked, you may have some explaining to do.
Go on airplane mode
A few of the first slides in any Story are preloaded by Instagram, which is why they pop up so fast while newer slides take a second to load. You can open a person’s profile, toggle on airplane mode, and view whichever slides have preloaded in safety. Your name won’t appear on the viewers’ list. Still, not all the slides in a long story will preload, so you’ll only see a few this way.
Use the pull-over method
This tip generally only works for iPhone users, so be warned about that upfront. Called, at times, Insta-peeking, this method involves navigating to your feed, where you see all the available Stories lined up at the top. Open a Story to the left or right of the one you want to see, but don’t want to be caught looking at. Then, hold your finger down on the Story to pause it and carefully—so carefully—slide your finger in the opposite direction of the Story you want to see.
Say you want to see your friend Jane’s Story, but don’t want her to know you looked. In the lineup at the top of your feed, Jane’s story appears to the left of Jill’s. Open Jill’s Story, pause it, and slide your finger to the right. You’ll see that Jill’s Story starts to disappear and part of Jane’s Story is now visible. You’ll only see the last slide of whatever Jane posted and you won’t see the full thing, but you will get a sense of what the slide says.
Bear in mind here that for this one to work, you need to be following the person you want to creep on so their Story appears alongside others at the top of your feed. Also note that any wrong move or slip of the finger will open up the Story in question. Practice this method a few times on Stories you don’t care about.
For a real one-two punch, you can use airplane mode to view a person’s first few slides, then transition to Insta-peeking to see the final one.
Use third-party apps
Developers have identified a need for Story creeping among the masses and have responded with a variety of third-party apps that purport to give you the ability to view a Story without being detected. They have shady security and some of them don’t work. If a site or app asks you to log in with your Instagram credentials, please don’t do it.
One that does have a decent reputation for working is InstaStories. You don’t have to log in and, as long as the person you’re trying to creep on has a public account, you can view the whole Story. We tried this one and can confirm it makes the Story visible without giving any indication to the poster that anyone suspicious has viewed it.
A new tab will open. You will find all the posts you have liked in this new tab.
This unofficial method should help you view your liked images, videos, and reels on the Instagram website.
How to Unlike Multiple Posts on Instagram
Conventionally, you can manually unlike posts one by one by opening individual posts. However, you can also invalidate multiple Instagram posts at the same time.
- Head to the Liked Posts section on your Android/iOS app.
- Long press on the post that you want to unlike.
- Select the posts you want to unlike by tapping on them and then select Unlike.
- Click on Unlike.
This way, you don’t have to hunt for a particular post to unlike.
FAQ about Viewing Liked Posts on Instagram
Wondering how many liked posts you can see? According to Instagram, you can only see your last 300 most recent photos and videos you have liked at a time. To access the older Likes after that, you have to navigate to the post manually.
The liked posts aren’t jumbled, as they appear in an order based on when they were liked. You can sort them in order from oldest to newest post or vice versa.
If you want to hide the like count of your Instagram posts, follow the steps below:
- Go to your profile tab.
- Click on the hamburger menu.
- Select Settings.
- Select Privacy
- Click on Posts
- Switch on the Hide Like and View Counts toggle.
You can now enjoy content without getting distracted by metrics such as like counts.
Liking a post on Instagram is very simple and straightforward. You can use either double-tap on the post or click on the heart icon to like a post or reel. If you do not like a post, you can get unlike it by repeating the same steps.
It is imperative to secure our digital safety in today’s age. You can make your social media accounts more secure by enabling two-factor authentication. You can follow our guide on how to enable two-factor authentication.
If you use Instagram as a business or creator, you get access to Instagram Insights. To find your most-liked posts on Instagram, tap Insights on your profile page, then tap Accounts Reached, scroll down to Top Posts and See All.
You can also sort these posts by Reach or by Likes.
If you are wondering why you can’t see the posts you have liked on Instagram, it’s because Insta modified the app sometime back and removed the tab showing the activity. But it’s still possible to find posts you have liked. Open the Instagram app, open your Profile tab, tap the hamburger menu on the top right corner, then select Your activity. Here, ta