So long as the account you’re viewing is public, or you’ve been accepted as a follower of a private account, you’ll be able to view the Story without the person knowing it was *you*. If keeping your info private is important to you, and you want to be able to see what everyone’s up to without letting them know you’re online, you can use a secondary Instagram account to peep in secret. Note that if this poster has a particularly long Story, or many slides, they likely won’t all preload, so you’ll only be able to see a few. When you don’t have a WiFi or cellular connection, Stories can’t count your view -so if you pull up someone’s profile, and then duck into Airplane mode, turn off your cell signal and return to their page to view their Story, it will load, and the user won’t see you in their viewer’s log. Instagram preloads a handful of Stories, so that when you log on you can instantly view them, regardless of your connection status.

While Instagram doesn’t offer any obvious way around having your name pop up, there are a few different ways you can peek at a Story without being seen, so long as it’s a public account or someone you already follow. “I had to immediately reply and pretend that I hadn’t seen their messages - it was embarrassing, and it happens a lot,” she says.īeing seen in a Story audience is often reason enough to avoid watching it.

“I kept ignoring this one friends DMs just because I wasn’t in the mood to read and respond and I was trying to be careful to not watch their Stories, but I did accidentally,” Taylor, 24 tells Bustle.

Though you might enjoy being able to see who is watching your Stories, you’ve likely wondered how to watch other people’s Instagram Stories anonymously. The ability to check out who has viewed your Instagram Story is a double edged sword - pretty satisfying when it’s your Story, and pretty exposing when you’re on the other side.

Insta stories anonymous