Instagram Stories provide a peek into the lives of the people we follow in a casual and unpolished content format, and also gives us insights into what our competitors are doing. Whether you just want to see what your friends are up to or want to keep tabs on accounts without them knowing, you’re probably here to learn how to see Instagram stories.
We will go over both how to see a Story the standard way, as well as how to view them anonymously.
How to See Instagram Stories of Your Friends
If you just want to see the Stories your friends are sharing on a daily basis, you can follow these steps:
- Open the Instagram app
- Look at the top of the screen and notice there are profile pictures of your most interacted with friends
- Tap on the profile photo of the person whose Story you would like to see
That’s it! You can now view their Story, or view several if they shared more than one.
How to See Instagram Stories Anonymously
If you want to conduct some clandestine market research, there is a way to view Instagram stories without anyone knowing you saw them.
Normally, the creator of a Story can see who viewed their Stories. However, only the Story creator will see these viewers, not anyone else. Still, if you want to stay completely anonymous while viewing Stories, follow these steps:
- Open the Instagram app
- Enable Airplane Mode on your device
- Go to the Story of the person you wish to see anonymously by tapping on their profile picture
- View the Story now without the creator knowing you saw it
This method works because when your device is in Airplane Mode, which means you are not connected to the internet. Instagram’s servers can’t detect you viewing someone’s Story.
You are still able to view the Stories because they were loaded before you enabled Airplane Mode.
Protip: Close the IG app after you viewed the Story while Airplane Mode was on. This will guarantee you are not logged as having seen the Story.
After you are done, disable Airplane Mode and return to using Instagram as you were before.
Bottom Line: Now that you know how to see Instagram Stories of your friends and of competitors anonymously, you can use either method according to your needs and objectives.
