Whether you want to view your crush’s story, an ex-lover’s, or an ex-best friend’s Instagram stories have a way of letting the person know that you have viewed their story, which you might not want them to know or be aware of.
With Instagram, the process of story-watching is like a give and take. Yes, you can view anyone’s stories on your following list or any public account, but your profile name will show on the list of people who viewed their stories.
While this seems harmless at first sight, for those who want to view stories, perhaps of an ex-lover anonymously, it might be detrimental to your situation if they see you on their viewers’ list.
So here is a hack you can follow if you are keen on viewing someone’s story without them knowing that you did.
- Once on your Instagram page, go to the bar with all the preloaded stories ready to be watched.
- Click on the profile next to the actual story you wish to view. This can be the story before or after the one you want to view anonymously.
- When this story loads, let the story play
- Before it ends, pause the story by long pressing on the middle of the screen.
- Once the story is paused, you can try swiping left or right, depending on which side of the profile you want to view.
- It can be pretty tricky if you are doing this for the first time because if you move it too close to the end, it might get swiped to the story, and Instagram will register your profile as one that has viewed the story. And we don’t want that.
One disadvantage of this hack is that if the profile you are trying to look into has uploaded more than one story, you will not be able to view the stories after the first one.
If you still wish to view further into their stories anonymously, you can try these other methods:
Airplane mode:
- Ensure you have an active internet connection before turning your phone off.
- Let Instagram preload some of the stories; especially the one you wish to view
- Now turn off your data and put your phone on airplane mode
- Go back to Instagram and click on the story you want to watch
- Since your phone is not connected to the internet, Instagram will not register your profile as one that has viewed the story.
Use an alternate account
This method is the easiest and most nonchalant way of “anonymously” viewing people’s stories without getting caught with your real username. The only disadvantage is that if you want to view someone’s story whose account is private, you need to be friends with them first or let them accept your follow request. However, you still can stalk your crush on Instagram without an account.
Use an online viewer
You can go to iganony.io that will help you view other people’s profiles as long as they are private without logging into your account so that you remain completely anonymous. Read more about what is IgAnony.