After carrying out extensive research (and some personal testing), detailed below are 6 tips on how to lurk through someone’s socials that you might have a terrible gut feeling about.
We’ve all been guilty of doing this at some point, and certain features such as Instagram Stories will evidently notify the other person if you decide to click on it, making it a tricky task.
Whilst we’re not encouraging this type of behavior, there have been some viral TikTok’s with over hundreds of thousands of views (mainly from women) sharing their hacks if you simply think something is up with your significant other.
Tip #1: Sneaky ways to view an Insta story without them knowing
Instagram stories are a great way to share glimpses of your life with others, but, what happens if you want to look at someone’s story without them being notified and seeing?
There could be many reasons as to why you want to watch someone’s Instagram story secretly – maybe you’re suspicious about someone your partner interacts with or an ex.
We’ve got you!
The first method is to go onto the next post (to the right) of the actual story you want to take a peek at. Next, you will pause on that story by holding down on the screen and very slowly swipe to the left.
This enables you to get to a middle-point in between both stories, and therefore allows you to secretly view the story you wanted to see without registering on their viewer’s list.
Another method, if you wish to watch a story posted by an account you don’t follow, click on it and then ensure to immediately block that account.
This prevents your name from showing up on their view’s list and they’ll no longer have access to your Instagram story view.
The last hack on how to look at someone’s story that you don’t follow, the airplane mode trick!
Simply, wait until the story has loaded on Instagram and then disconnect your phone from data/Wi-Fi and turn on airplane mode in Settings. The Instagram story can then be viewed anonymously.
Highly important: After watching the stories, it is essential that you close and clear the app from the recently opened section. Once this is done, you can go ahead and turn off airplane mode and reconnect your device. If you don’t do this, your view might be listed on their ‘Seen’ list.
Tip #2: Click through a profile’s highlights incognito
Now, this is where the level of your skills need to be sharpened.
The Instagram app only shows the viewers of posts, on Stories that have been added to a Highlight, if that particular story was viewed within the 24-hour period of being posted.
Meaning that no, someone can’t see that you viewed their Instagram highlight if it’s been up for more than 24 hours.
It’s important to remember that everyone can see your Instagram highlights if your profileis public and if you didn’t hide your story from anyone.
If you didn’t watch someone’s Instagram story but instead watched their highlight, they’ll only know you did if the story was posted within the last 24 hours. Moreover, if they added an old story to their highlight, they won’t be able to notice that you watched it.
Tip #3: Using an account not associated with your name
The most obvious way to glance at someone’s account that you might want to find out more about without being caught out.
Perhaps a mutual friend who might follow them can show you a particular post or story.
Or perhaps you have a private Instagram account that has no association to your name or people you know and therefore the person’s account you look at won’t “technically” know it’s you.
Tip #4: See who they’ve been searching on their phone
If your partner gives you access to their phone, a viral hack is to go onto their Instagram account and straight to the ‘Search’ bar function on the Explore page.
Once there, you can see their most recently searched accounts, but that’s quite obvious and some might delete their recently searched…
The hack here is to type in the first letter of a name/account and Instagram will automatically show all the accounts that contains that letter – even if they have searched and deleted proof of searching!
Tip #5: View their following list chronologically
Previously, Instagram itself had the feature of displaying someone’s following list in order of most recently followed.
Making it super easy to keep tabs on who your partner most recently interacted with on the app. A few years ago, they completely removed this order and the only way you could actually view an accounts followers & following list in order was via Safari.
Logging into Instagram through Safari gave you all the accounts most recently followed and broke many hearts in the process.
As of recently, this is no longer available either (Instagram are really onto all the self-proclaimed detectives out there) and some TikTokers such as @mikahlaoconnor have shown hacks that through a Chrome Extension called IG Follower Export Tool you can view the list in chronological order.
Tip #6: Snapchat emoji’s & what they mean
A viral video on TikTok has also revealed some tricks that could leave you feeling shocked.
User @marahlovessyou posted a video about “how to catch your girlfriend or boyfriend cheating on you”.
In it, she detailed that for Snapchat, if you have a mutual friend you can use this guide below to uncover what exactly they mean as per the app.
“If any pop up next to their name here’s what they mean.”
The TikTok video then depicts the meaning of several Snapchat emojis.
For example:
- A heart with sparkles means “Super BFF”
- The emoji with sunglasses means “Mutual BFs”
- The grin emoji means “Mutual Besties”
The TikToker goes on to further explain that you should be on the look out for the Mutual BFs and Mutual Besties emoji, as this can indicate that a person is also best friends on Snapchat with your partner.
There comes a time where we just *need* to find out something and the above points are the various tricks drawn out from various trends circulating the web.
Again, keep in mind that this behavior shouldn’t be encouraged, and if you’re really not happy with something in your relationship, communicate with your SO.
Follow us on Twitter @itpliveme & let us know of any social media mishap stories you’ve faced.