Can Someone See If You Search Them On Instagram?
You are probably aware that you can see who has seen your profile on LinkedIn. LinkedIn immediately notifies you whenever someone views your profile.
But what about Instagram?
What happens if you search for a profile or choose one of the suggested profiles and view the Instagram profile?
Will they know?
Keep reading to find out…
- Can Someone See If You Search Them On Instagram?
- What all things can you do without getting caught?
- Avoid doing this!
- The test
- Conclusion
Can Someone See If You Search Them On Instagram?
NO! If you search for and visit someone’s Instagram profile, that person will not be aware.
When someone visits a person’s profile on Instagram, the person is not notified.
However, if you watch their Instagram story, the user may go into the “Viewers List” and see who has viewed the story.
Similarly, if you comment or like their post, they will be notified.
What all things can you do without getting caught?
The following are the things you can do without getting caught:
- View their profile: You can view their Instagram profile. If their Instagram account is public then you can even view their posts.
- Watch Story highlights. You can also watch any Story highlights that are accessible on the profile. The person will not know because the “Viewers List” for Story Highlight is not available.
- View the followers: You can also view the entire list of followers without being detected.
- View the accounts they are following: You can see the accounts that the user is following. Instagram will not notify the user.
Avoid doing this!
If you want to view an Instagram account without getting caught, then avoid doing the following things:
- Watching stories: Avoid watching Instagram stories because your profile name will be added to the “Viewers List” if you do. The user can then go to the “Viewers List” to see who has seen their story. Only the person who posted the story has access to the “Viewers List.”
- Commenting on a post: Do not comment on a post because if you do, the person will be notified,
- Liking a post: You should also never like an Instagram post.
The test
We created two Instagram accounts solely for the purpose of this research. We were curious whether someone could see if you searched them on Instagram. We also went through all of Instagram’s features and settings to see if there was a hidden feature for that. The following are the tests that we ran:
Test-1: Make A and B private. Search for account B from account A
For this test, we made account A and account B private.
If you are wondering how to make an Instagram account private then follow these steps:
- Open the app
- Tap the Profile icon
- Tap on Menu
- Select Settings
- Select Privacy
- Enable the Private account toggle switch
After making both the accounts private, we switched to account “A”. Searched for account “B” and then opened the Instagram profile.
Result
After searching for account “B” from account “A”, we switched to account “B” to see if you got any notification. Upon, viewing the notification list, we couldn’t see any notification. That clearly shows that Instagram doesn’t notify you when someone searches and views your Instagram profile.
Test-2: Make A public and B private. Search for account B from account A
Because both accounts were private, we chose to make A public. In this test, we searched for account B from account A.
After making A public, we searched for account B on Instagram. We even glanced over the profile.
Result
Even after seeing the profile from a public Instagram account, Account B received no notification.
Test-3: Make A and B public. Search for account B from account A
For this test, we made both accounts public. We assumed Instagram wasn’t notifying account B since it was private. As a result, we made B public as well.
And once more, we searched for account B from account A and vice versa.
Result
Both accounts didn’t get any notifications.
Test-4: Follow each other and search
Both accounts were initially strangers, so we decided to make them friends by following one another.
Following that, we looked for account B from account A and vice versa.
This time, because both accounts were following each other, they could see each other’s posts.
So we went through the account, looked at the profile, checked a few posts, and watched some Story highlights.
Result
No notifications at all. Even after viewing the posts and watching the Story highlights both accounts never got any notification.
Conclusion
We concluded after four tests that an Instagram user cannot see if someone searches for them on Instagram. There is also no way to know whether someone is searching for your Instagram profile.
