How to Anonymously Sneak up on Someone’s Instagram Stories
Since its launch in 2016, Instagram Stories has become a phenomenon. Users can freely post about their day, their interests, their thoughts, their clothes, their accomplishments, and more without having to think about whether or not to post online or the anxiety that comes with waiting for likes and comments from the public. Stories disappear after 24 hours, so these are just temporary bursts of information with no real flaws.
However, what they lack in public stressful situations, they make up for in private: the poster of the story can be seen by anyone who looks at it, which cannot be said about the posts in the grid. This in itself can be fraught. If your ex is posting a lot on their story, you obviously want to know what they are sharing, especially since you only have 24 days to figure it out, but you don’t want them to know what you want to know!
Having your name on the viewer list is not always desirable, but it can be avoided with varying degrees of success. Yes, you can get your cake and eat it too. You can see History without being seen. Here are some ways.
Make a creep account
Sliding accounts are very common. Call them creepers, burners, finstas or whatever, but they serve the same purpose: this account can be more anonymous and no one has to know it’s you. Kim Kardashian uses this method, for example, and talked about it in a podcast interview released earlier this week.
Burner accounts have some disadvantages. First, Instagram rolled out a feature a while ago that allows users to block not only you, but any other accounts you create that are linked to your main account. Your burners can be locked before you even create them.
Secondly, if the person you want to sneak up on has a personal account, you will have to request a subscription to it. They will probably not honor your request if your account is called, for example, bojangles348930, does not have an identifying profile picture, posts, and has a too high follower to follower ratio. (It’s clearly a burner.) What you can do, of course, is create a hefty fake persona and spend a lot of time creating a false life for it by posting a lot, getting followers, and generally being active. However, even if you create a completely reliable fake account for a fake person, why would the person you want to scam give your alter ego access to their personal account?
Burner accounts only really work if you want to see the history of someone with a public account. Be careful, of course, if they don’t have a lot of views or are just (rightfully) paranoid, they might block you if they see an account on the list that they don’t recognize. Unless you…
View history and then block the person
Use this method for people you don’t follow, whether you’re using your real account or a burner. If you view a story and then immediately block the poster, they won’t see your name on the list unless they view that split second before you complete the block. If their story is long, this can be a problem, as your name will appear on the first slides for as long as it takes you to view the last.
This is a proven method. After 24 hours, unblock them and view a new story, then block again.
However, try to only do this with a running account, because if you’re doing this on your real one and the person in question gets suspicious, looks for your account, and finds it’s blocked, you might have to explain something.
Switch to airplane mode
The first few slides in any story are preloaded by Instagram, which is why they appear so quickly, while new slides take a second to load. You can open a person’s profile, turn on Airplane Mode, and view preloaded slides safely. Your name will not appear in the list of viewers. However, not all slides in a long story will be preloaded, so you will only see a few of them this way.
Use the pullover method
This tip usually only works for iPhone users, so be aware of this ahead of time. This method, sometimes called Insta-Peeking, involves going to your feed, where you see all 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 watching. Then hold your finger on the Story to pause it, and gently— very carefully —swipe in the opposite direction of the Story you want to see.
Let’s say you want to watch your friend Jane’s Story, but you don’t want her to know you’ve watched it. In the list at the top of your feed, Jane’s story appears to the left of Jill’s story. Open Jill’s Story, pause it, and swipe right. You will see that Jill’s story is starting to fade and part of Jane’s story is now visible. You will only see the last slide of what Jane posted and you won’t see it in its entirety, but you will get an idea of what the slide is saying.
Keep in mind that in order for this to work, you need to follow the person you want to sneak up on to have their story appear next to others at the top of your feed. Also note that any wrong move or misstep of the finger will reveal the Story in question. Practice this method a few times on stories you are not interested in.
For a real one-two punch, you can use Airplane Mode to view the person’s first few slides, then switch to Insta-Peeking to see the last one.
Use third party apps
The developers have identified the need for a Story to be shared among the masses and have responded with a variety of third-party apps that are designed to let you view the Story without being discovered. They have questionable security and some of them don’t work. If a site or app asks you to sign in with your Instagram credentials, don’t do it.
One of them has a decent reputation for work – it’s InstaStories . You don’t have to sign in, and if the person you’re trying to sneak up on has a public account, you can view the entire history. We tried this and can confirm that it makes the story visible without giving any indication to the poster that someone suspicious has viewed it.