You’re only human – no doubt you’ve wondered if anybody has been flatteringly/creepily visiting your Instagram page. In other words, do you have an Instagram stalker?
Well, we have good news and bad news. But let’s start with the bad.
Who has visited my Instagram page?
There’s actually no way of you finding out who visits your Instagram page. Instagram knows, but this information isn’t passed on to users or to third-party apps via any API.
So what do all those third-party apps which claim to tell you who has viewed your Instagram profile actually do? Well, given that an awful lot of them seem to be deleted (I followed four dead Google Play Store links while researching this piece), the answer is probably something untoward.
But it’s also possible that they’re providing mundane public functionality while pretending it’s something more. Maybe the apps tell you who’s followed/unfollowed you, which is perfectly easy to track without the help of an app.
I wouldn’t recommend you download any of these, no matter how many positive reviews there are. Fake reviews are cheap, and putting your Instagram password into a dubious third-party app claiming to offer hidden functionality is just asking for trouble.
So there’s no way of telling who Instagram stalks me?
Actually there is, but it’s pretty limited, only available for the Instagram Stories section of the site: those Snapchat-style 24-hour vanishing videos and photos that appear along the top of the screen.
As Instagram explains, if you select your own Story, a swipe up will show you the number of people who’ve viewed your story and the names of those who’ve seen it, aping how Snapchat works. Viewer information will be available for up to 48 hours after you’ve posted it.
If you spot someone on the list you’d rather not be seeing every aspect of your documented life, you can press the X next to their name, which will block them from seeing your Stories in future without them knowing that they’re barred.
Does the order of names mean anything?
A theory is doing the rounds that names at the top of this list are people who visit your profile the most – which is to say your biggest stalkers. But apparently, almost the opposite is true.
According to the product lead for Instagram Home, the list is algorithmically generated by who you interact with the most. In other words, if your super secret crush is appearing top of the list, it’s because you spend a lot of time on their profile. Oops.
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