How to see private Instagram profiles without following them?

We have all wondered at least once how to see private Instagram profiles without following them. After all, Instagram is the king of social networks for sharing photos and videos with friends and acquaintances, but also with complete strangers, only if the account is public. Users who are particularly careful about their privacy choose to set the profile closed, to manually control who can follow as well as see and comment on personal posts and stories.

But is it possible to see the contents of a private Instagram profile without being a follower? The answer is yes, but with limitations. The traditional method would only involve sending the "follow" request and then waiting to be accepted. Something that not all users are happy to do, especially towards those whose only intent is to snoop around a bit.

Here are the alternative methods and useful tricks that can be applied.

How a private profile on Instagram works

The main feature of a private profile on Instagram is that it can only be accessed by those who follow it. Otherwise, it will not be possible to view any type of information.
Except for those, obviously, visible by default, such as the number of posts and the number of followers and following.

Furthermore, following a private profile does not exclude that the user in question has applied restrictions towards other users. One of the most common is the action that allows the owner account to limit the viewing of its content only to certain users. Either through the appropriate privacy settings or through a list of closest friends.

Excluding this not-so-rare situation, here are the applications and services that allow you to see private profiles on Instagram without following them, applicable, in most cases, also to those who want to see Instagram stories without having an account.

Apps to watch private Instagram profiles

Starting from the applications that allow you to browse inside private accounts without following them, some very interesting options deserve to be mentioned. The first of these is Profile+, available officially only for iOS.

The application in question will not strictly allow you to look at photos and videos that the account will publish, but rather to view the stories published every 24 hours. If you want to consult them more often, you will have to pay a monthly subscription, but it is a good method to see the stories of a private profile.

Another app worthy of mention is "Post saver for Instagram", also available only for Android devices. This second app is much more functional and less limited than the previous one. It allows all Android devices to view and save the stories of the private accounts of your interest. Since this is a highly specialized action, even though it is requested by many users, there are no other relevant apps.

Another potentially effective method to achieve you intend to use browser extensions. The only one present and existing in this sense is HiddenGram, whose name already suggests the purpose it can satisfy.

Secondly, you can also use Picuki. This is a site that, although it does not allow access to private accounts, can still allow you to consult the stories of public profiles in total freedom as long as they are available. Therefore, if you want to see Instagram stories without an account, the one just mentioned is the best tool on the market.

Although these applications are easy to find and often even free to use, this does not in any way constitute a recommendation to use them.

Seeing private Instagram profiles but not on Instagram: search for them on other platforms

Especially if we are talking about particularly famous people, it is likely that, despite their fame, their account is still closed. However, one should not lose hope because of this.

Instagram is not, in fact, the only existing social network, on the contrary. Although the general perception gives the idea of a desert populated by a select few, in reality Facebook for a famous person still has a certain relevance.

The same content proposed on Instagram can therefore also be proposed on the Facebook page of the person in question, which, by definition, cannot be set as private, unlike a real personal profile.

The probability that both social networks host the same content, including photos, videos, and stories, is very high. Especially if the page in question is not managed by a social media manager, but by the person directly involved.

View stories and posts via friends’ accounts

Another great idea to see a private Instagram profile without following it in turn is to exploit the potential following of your friends. If the person in question is a mutual friend, everything will be easier.

You can ask your friends to view the profile in question, snoop around a bit, and, simply, see all the content on it without bothering to follow it.

This is a traditional method, and it can only work with those with whom you have a particularly close relationship. Not everyone is willing to lend their Instagram profile, even for a short time.

For legal reasons, this must be done only and exclusively from the mobile phone of the person in question. Extracting photos from another person’s social profile is an illegal practice unless there is explicit consent from that person.

Create a fake account

Although identity theft is another practice to be strongly discouraged, fortunately, there is an alternative and safe way to complete your mission. All this in a legal manner, to be precise.

You can create a secondary account so that you can send a follow request to the person of interest without arousing any suspicion. Obviously, you will have to be careful not to select a name and a photo that belongs to others.

Maybe a fictitious username and a random image can help. Following this reasoning, there could be some difficulty in being accepted. Since it is an unknown person, the request could remain pending.

But if you are dealing with a famous person, where you tend to be interested in quantity even at the cost of having to accept being followed by strangers, then everything will be much simpler.

Viewing private Instagram profiles without following them: here’s what not to do

What should you not do when you choose to look at a private profile on Instagram without following it? Simply put, you need to be careful not to violate all the rules that the platform imposes on its users.

Finding sneaky methods to violate the accounts in question and view them with programmed bots by hand is, in fact, illegal, since it is against the rules that are tacitly accepted from the moment you sign up to the platform.

Furthermore, you cannot use a fake account with the photo and name of a friend or acquaintance of the account you want to snoop into. Social identity theft is a practice that is severely punished with prison time from two to six years.

Although it is possible to view Instagram stories without an account, these are the steps that must be followed to avoid running into unpleasant situations. With the law as well as, in general, with the people involved.

Original article published on Money.it Italy 2024-09-03 15:54:43. Original title: Come vedere profili privati Instagram senza seguirli?