Instagram Stories, when viewed, reveal information about the audience of the posts, but can also raise questions. Does the viewing order show who opened the post more often? What is the total number of hits to a content? And yet: is it possible to see Stories anonymously, without anyone knowing? Check out the answers below for these and other frequently asked questions about photos and videos that last 24 hours on Instagram and learn how to get even more out of the feature.
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1. How to view Stories and not be seen?
Insta Stalker online platform allows you to anonymously browse Instagram profiles – Photo: Reproduction / Marvin Costa
Natively, Instagram doesn’t allow you to view hidden Stories. However, there are mobile apps and services on the web that offer an option to view stories anonymously. These services are able to access profiles from the photo network and present them to anyone, even those who do not have an Instagram account. Still, it is important to say that only public profiles can be accessed anonymously.
The Insta Stalker website, for example, offers a search to access profiles and view user stories. The platform does not require a login to access public profiles. The same happens with the Story Ghost (iPhone) and Anonymous Stories Viewer for Instagram (Android) apps that guarantee the privacy of watching the stories on smartphones. There is even the Hiddengram extension that offers the feature for Chrome users.
2. How do I know who saw my Stories?
Viewing list of friends who saw your story (Photo: Reproduction / Helito Bijora) – Photo: Reproduction / Helito Bijora
This procedure is relatively simple. The data is offered natively by the application and is arranged in the statistics for each published story. Just open the content and slide the screen up to view the avatar and the name of the friend who accessed the post. The feature also features people who are not on the friends list who viewed the content.
3. How do I know how many times my Storie has been seen?
Data about impressions and the choice of reach data for Stories from an Instagram business account – Photo: Reproduction / Marvin Costa
This data is only displayed for those who have a commercial Instagram account. These users can use the analysis metrics of the profile publications to find out how their posts are doing. The feature presents specific details about the reach of each published story. The «Impressions» count provides the total number of times the post has been viewed by friends. The data resource for «Content» is in the Information section which is accessed through the profile options.
4. How does the order of viewing Stories on Instagram work?
Instagram updates with support for the new color range of the iPhone 7 (Photo: Luciana Maline / dnetc) – Photo: Luciana Maline / dnetc
Four activities influence the way the algorithm organizes the ranking of profiles that viewed the stories, according to product leader for Instagram, Julian Gutman. The platform records the interactions of friends on Instagram, interactions on Facebook, how many times the list of views is accessed and any other activity performed on Instagram and also on Facebook. However, these data are just some of the interactions that help define the ranking of views. In short, we can say that the order of the list does not show who viewed the content more often.
In an interview with The Verge, Gutman said the view log was not created to detect stalkers. Therefore, the order of the list can change according to how new people view a story. The way the algorithm works is still a mystery kept under lock and key by Instagram.
5. How to see old stories?
Action to open an old story in the archived item tool of Instagram – Photo: Reproduction / Marvin Costa
The Archived Items function stores your old published stories. Through it, it is possible to review stories and the amount of people who saw the content. In addition, the feature even allows you to repost any Storie using the share button. The souvenir appears in sticker format when published. The tool allows searching for published stories in up to a year.
