As a netizen, if you ever hear the term stories around somewhere, it’ll directly take your mind to Instagram. This is because of the exponential growth in the popularity of stories on this particular social media platform. But were you aware that Instagram wasn’t the first platform to launch the stories feature? In fact, it was not even an original idea by Instagram. The feature was first launched by Snapchat in October 2013, with a concept of temporary or time-sensitive content that disappears after 24 hours.
The feature was rolled out on Instagram three years later, after which it found its way to both WhatsApp and Facebook. Over time, Instagram kept upgrading its stories feature with various customizable viewer options and filters.
Our blog today revolves around Instagram stories as well. If you feel like learning more about how stories work on the platform, stick with us till the end!
Viewing stories on Instagram: Here’s how they work
Before we get straight to the matter at hand, let’s do a quick catch-up on how viewing stories work on Instagram. As you already know, there are two kinds of accounts on Instagram: private and public.
If you own a private account, any story you post can be viewed by every user who follows them. And if you want an even more restricted audience, you can customize your Close Friends list and then upload a story with a green star.
Furthermore, you also have the option of hiding your story from specific users if you need to. All you need to do is go to their profiles and enable the setting.
These customization options remain the same for both private and public accounts. However, while the audience of a regular story is limited to the followers of a private account, in a public account, it’s open to all.
In other words, if you upload a story on your public account, any Instagram user can see it if they find your profile, regardless of whether or not they follow you.
If I Don’t Follow Public Profile on Instagram, Can They Still See I Checked their Stories?
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s skip ahead to the specific question we’re here to resolve: If you don’t follow a public profile on Instagram but check their stories still, will they find out?
Well, this might not be the answer you were looking for, but yes, they will.
Here’s how it works:
When you open any of your own stories and swipe up the screen, what do you see? The Viewers listof your story. On this list, the name of every user who has viewed your story will be mentioned.
If you’re a private account owner, this should be complicated as all your viewers are already your followers. Whereas, in the case of a public account, random people can view your stories as well.
No matter who’s viewing your story, their name is bound to turn up in your Viewers list.
So, if you’ve checked a public account owner’s story and are wondering if they could’ve seen it, then yes, they could have. But not necessarily. Most public account owners don’t bother with checking every single one of their story views because who has got the time? And once the 24-hours window is complete, even they won’t be able to check their list.
Is there a way I can turn off the visibility of my views?
On WhatsApp, you can view any status in incognito mode by disabling your read receipts. However, no such feature has been rolled out by Instagram as of now. This means that there’s sadly no way for you to turn the visibility of your story views off. But don’t worry; if such a feature is launched on the platform in the future, we’ll be the first ones to tell you all about it.
Summing it up
With this, we’ve come to the end of our blog. Today, we discussed in depth how viewing stories on Instagram works and how its nuances are different for the public and private accounts.
Later, we also explored the possibility of a public account owner checking your views on their stories if you don’t follow them. This was only to learn that the views of stories have little to do with followers on a public profile. As long as you’re able to see someone’s stories, they’ll be able to tell that you have.
Is there anything you’d like us to help you with on Instagram? Or any other social media platform? Tell us in the comments, and we’ll be back with a solution soon!
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