How to view Instagram stories without them knowing

Instagram tracks who has viewed an Instagram Story and how many people have engaged with it. Sometimes, you may want to see a Story but not let the author know.

Perhaps you are conducting market research and would like to see the Instagram strategy of a competitor brand. Or, maybe you monitor your friends. However, you prefer to keep the information about who viewed the stories private. There are multiple ways to view an Instagram Story without letting them know.

Option 1: Click on the following Instagram Story and swipe back

This technique takes advantage of the interface, which allows you to swipe between Stories from different users. What to do?

Search for the profile whose story is hidden on your feed and click on it. To pause the story, tap on it and then swipe slowly in the direction you wish to view the story. It will appear on the side adjacent to a 3D box. You should not swipe the whole way. If you do so, the user will notice that you have viewed the item.

This method has a significant drawback, though. You can only view the first story in a profile's feed. The next videos won't be available. It is possible to accidentally swipe the entire way, leading to the whole exercise being futile.

Option 2: Use a third-party app or website

This requires you to use a different app or website. These stories are not counted in stats, so users won't be able to see them. Also, these apps are third-party apps, so please use them with caution.

• Desktop: Visit storiesig.com to search for the user. You can view and download all the recent stories if their profile is public.
• iPhone: Install the Story Reposter App and log in. In the search bar, please type in the user's name and tap the folder that contains their Instagram Stories.
• Android: Download Story Saver and log in. You can search for the account using the search icon at the upper right. Their stories will be displayed in a feed format.

Although it takes a bit more work, it is more reliable and allows you to save and download the viewing stories. Therefore, it might be the best way to watch stories anonymously for you conveniently.

Option 3: Use an anonymous account

You can watch other people's IG stories by creating a burner account without revealing your identity. You can view the stories of anyone you like anytime by using your burner account if their account is public. If their account is private, you must follow them and accept their request to view their IG stories anonymously.

This is because they can't link your account with this burner account unless they suspect you are the one behind it. This is another thing you should know. If they don't have many followers and see that someone is following their stories, they may block them.

Option 4: Watch it in the final minutes

You can also watch an Instagram story about to expire to see if it has been updated. You can determine when the story was uploaded by looking at its length and subtracting 24 to calculate how many hours are left.

You can use the above half swipe method to check the time it has been up. You can then watch the story for them once you know when it will end. They won't be able to see who has viewed the story if they don't know when it ends. If you don't leave it too late, you have a better chance of your username not being on the list.

Option 5: Watch cached stories (i.e., turn off the Internet connection)

You may turn off the Internet traffic on your smartphone(or desktop). Therefore, the Instagram app won't be able to send the data to its servers about you watched some story. You can do that by limiting the connection on your smartphone settings or enabling the Airplane mode.

The drawback is that you can't load data from the Instagram servers too. Hence, not many stories will be loaded(cached) for you to see. Our guess is one or few stories.

What is the best option to view Instagram stories anonymously?

While all the approaches allow you to view Instagram stories anonymously, they all have drawbacks. For example, it's inconvenient to enable the Airplane mode every time or click on a story and then swipe back.

In our opinion, the best approach would be to use some third-party tool. Usually, it's an automated bot that can communicate with Instagram servers. It's not complicated as it sounds. These tools are simple(or, most of them). Usually, you input an Instagram profile name. Then, the tool shows you stories or pictures of that profile. Thus, you can view Instagram stories anonymously because there are no data about you if you use the tools.