How to See Someone’s Activity on Instagram – All of It

Have you ever wanted to see what someone else is doing on Instagram? Well, it’s actually pretty easy. You just need to know where to look! I’ll show you how to see someone’s activity on Instagram in a couple of different ways that actually work today.

I’ll cover why you might want to check their Instagram activity in the first place then go onto how to do this in different circumstances. I’ll cover all the information you can easily view right now including their Instagram activity history.

Then I’ll show you an app to help you go deeper and see everything they do on the app. A great tool for parents wanting to keep a check on their kids online.

Don’t worry you don’t need to be a tech expert!

how to see someone's activity on Instagram

Why You Might Want to Check Their Activity?

It might sound a little bit creepy at first, but there are actually some really good reasons why people want to be able to do this.

For example, maybe you have a partner who is spending too much time on Instagram while they are meant to be spending time with you. You may just want to check that they aren’t up to no good.

Or maybe you are concerned about your kids activities on Instagram and you want to make sure they aren’t hanging out with the wrong kinds of people.

Maybe you just want to know what your friends are up to on Instagram, but you don’t want them to know that you’re checking out their photos. With Instagram’s new privacy settings, it can be hard to see your friend’s activity without getting caught.

Either way, it can be interesting to see what people are doing on social media sites!

Viewing Friends or Others Activity?

It makes a difference to the methods available. Let me explain.

The next section will explain how to see the activity of anyone you follow on Instagram. You can still see things like their recent posts, when they are online and who they are following.

If you want to see the Instagram activity of someone without following them you can still use some of the easy tips – as long as they are not set to Private.

In both cases you will NOT get to see everything they do on Instagram. If you are trying to monitor your kids activity or you want to see everything someone does on Instagram, you’ll need to go a step further.

I cover these methods below. So let’s get to it!

How to Check the Activities of People You Follow on Instagram

The ‘Following’ Tab

Instagram had a handy little feature called the Following activity tab. You were able to view the liked pictures and comments of everyone you followed.

However, this feature was scrapped in 2019. This feature was meant for discovering new accounts and Instagram stated that the ‘Explore’ feature fulfilled this purpose for most users.

It was not very widely used and some users felt uncomfortable having their likes, followers and comments made public. So that was the end of the ‘Following’ tab.

What Can We See Now?

With the ‘Following’ tab gone, users were limited in the activity they could see of the people they followed. Here’s everything you can access if you follow someone on Instagram:

Check Recent Posts

Instagram is primarily a photo and video sharing app. If you follow someone, look out for their posts on your feed. Due to changing algorithms, all of their posts do not show up on your feed.

Go to the ‘Explore’ tab and search for their name. Click on their ID and you will be able to see their profile. Click on a post to see when it was shared and what people commented on it.

You also have the option of getting a notification whenever someone shares a post. Open any post on the profile. Click on the three dots above the picture.

Scroll down and click on ‘Turn on post notifications’. Now you will get a notification whenever they post something.

This only works for accounts you follow. If an account is private, send a request to follow them.

View When Someone is Online on Instagram

For all the people you follow, you can see when they were last online. Find your direct messages on Instagram. Here, you will see all the conversations you’ve had on Instagram.

Click on a username and you will be able to see when they were last online. For this to work, you need to have had a conversation with this person first.

Also, you can only view their ‘last seen’ if they were the last person to send a message in the conversation.

Find Out Who They Follow on Instagram

Go to any Instagram account and click on ‘Following’ or ‘Followers’. You will be able to see a list of all the followers of the user and a list of all the people the user follows.

These lists are usually very long. They aren’t logged chronologically so you can’t see who recently followed them or who they recently followed.

There is a neat little hack to get around this. Close the app and open Instagram on a browser. Now you will be able to see a chronological list of followers.

See What Someone Likes on Instagram

There is no built in way to see what someone likes on Instagram any longer. To do this you’ll need to move on to my next section and use an Instagram monitoring tool. Don’t worry I’ll explain everything!

Do you use Reels? Have any problems with Reels not working on Instagram? I have the fixes for you in this guide.

How to See Someone’s Instagram Activity Without Being Friends or Following Them

A lot of people want or need to see someone’s Instagram user activity without following them. If the account is public, this is not a problem.

However, if they’ve made their account private or you don’t have access to their account for some reason, your only option is to turn to a tracking tool like mSpy.

With mSpy, you can look at all the Instagram activity of the user such as posts, messages, hashtags, stories and reels.

It is completely undetectable and once installed, gives you complete remote access to everything on the target device.

I cover lots of details in my How to Hack an Instagram Account Tutorial – don’t worry it is a legal guide!

see activity on instagram

Use an Instagram Activity Tracker

An Instagram activity tracker is a tool to help keep track of someone’s Instagram use. The only reliable trackers that I would recommend are spy apps designed to monitor your kids on Insta.

There are several spy software or monitoring programs capable of tracking Instagram account activity but my go to app is mSpy. It just can’t be beaten right now in terms of the level of coverage it offers. I explain a lot more below.

One big word of warning! There are loads of online Instagram Trackers and tracking tools making all sorts of claims. They are always scams of some sort, offering Free Instagram Activity Tracking. I have tested several of these services and people have reported many more as outright scams.

They claim to get anyone’s activity from Instagram and you can see it just by entering their username. They don’t work. All they do is make money from you by getting you to fill out online surveys or by selling your email address to scammers. No activity is every reported!

You’ll see these tools showing up in Google for most common social media sites including WhatsApp, Tiktok, Twitter and Youtube. All are fake – just avoid them.

mSpy for Instagram

mSpy is a monitoring tool that helps parents keep track of all activity on the target device. Once installed on the target phone, you don’t need the Instagram account ID or password to track their Instagram activity. You can track everything remotely.

Total Access to Instagram Activity History

You can view stories, posts, Likes, Reels, IGTVs and just about everything the user posts. It doesn’t matter if you follow the account or if the account is set to private. You can also see their Instagram usage time and all their likes and comments.

It can also solve another problem – allowing you to see deleted Instagram messages. So even when the message is deleted after posting, you can see it.

Incognito Tracking

You can view all this information without leaving any trace of your presence. The app runs in the background and is not visible on the target device. You need not get worried about getting busted with mSpy.

Advanced Tracking

Along with tracking Instagram activity, mSpy’s advanced features give you access to the user’s photos, videos, text messages, call logs, other social media like Facebook, Snapchat and GPS location.

Sounds too good to be true? See my main review article below for all the details and see why mSpy is my top pick for monitoring apps.

How to Track an Instagram Account with mSpy

Here’s how you can track an Instagram Account with mSpy:

Step One: Sign Up
Create an account with mSpy. It’s very simple and will only take you a few minutes.

Step Two: Download and Install mSpy
Download and install mSpy on your device and the target device. Don’t worry about installation, mAssistence will guide you through the process.

mSpy is a very user-friendly tool. You don’t need to be particularly tech-savvy to use it.

Step Three: Start Tracking Instagram Activity
Log in to your mSpy account and navigate to your dashboard. You can see all activity here, including Instagram and other social media.

mSpy logs all the interactions of the user. Even if they send and delete a direct message on Instagram or a text message, you will still be able to view it.

view others instagram activity

Why mSpy?

mSpy is a premier tracking tool available for both Android and Apple devices. It is completely secure and undetectable. Here are a few more benefits to using mSpy:

  • Complete Tracking: mSpy gives you access to all activities on the target devices. You can view call logs, texts, social media activity, browser history and downloads.
  • Location Tracking: With mSpy, you not only gain access to GPS location but you can also get notified when the user leaves a set area or enters a set area. This is done with a technology called geo-fencing.
  • User Friendly: mSpy’s user interface is very straightforward and easy to use.
  • Value for Money: mSpy has many plans available. One month’s subscription can cost you as low as $30.
  • Compatibility: mSpy is compatible with both Android and Apple operating systems. It even works for the non-jailbroken iPhone versions. mSpy can be used on both smartphones and tablets.
  • Advanced Features: mSpy keeps coming up with new features and tools for easy tracking. Keylogging is its latest feature it gives you access to all the keystrokes of the targeted device, including passwords and Google searches.

You may have come across some online tools claiming to let you view everything someone does on Instagram for free. I have an article about Private Instagram Viewers that work. I exposure the scams!

How to Hide Your Instagram Activity

If all this talk of tracking Instagram activity has you worried about your account, I’ve got a small trick for you. This will allow you to hide your Instagram activity.

Open your Instagram app, and click on the three dots at the top right corner. Click on settings and scroll down to find ‘Activity Status’. Toggle off.

Now your Instagram activity is no longer visible, not even to your followers. Of course this will not protect you from a spy app like mSpy! By the way, you can easily check to see if your Instagram account has been hacked using this guide.

The Final Word

There are many ways to see someone’s activity on Instagram. You can access different bits of information on different levels of privacy.

They have a variety of features that can help you see activity on Instagram. You can use these to see when they are online, if they’ve recently posted any photos or videos and even which stories they have uploaded.

If you need to take things further and see everything they do – you’ll need to consider a monitoring app.

It is interesting to see what people are doing on social media sites. It can be a way of spying, but it could also just help you keep an eye on your friends and family members if they spend too much time online.

The methods I covered today show that there are many different reasons why someone may want to see someone else’s Instagram activity!

Author - Susan Kennedy

Hi there - I'm Susan Kennedy, a regular mom who has used spy apps for years now. I was fed up with spammy reviews and poor information so I started this website. I also teach you how to improve your online security and stop unwanted spy apps. Reliable information from a real person!

Susan Kennedy author