If You Watch Someone’s Story, Then Block Them Instagram

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Accidentally watching someone’s story that you weren’t meant to see, especially if you didn’t follow each other, can be embarrassing, and you might find yourself reporting to the block button. But does this actually remove your name from the list of people who viewed their story?

If You Block Someone on Instagram, Can They See You Viewed Their Story?

If you block someone after viewing their Instagram story, they won’t be able to see that you viewed it. On the list of people that have viewed their story, your name won’t be there. It’ll completely disappear as soon as you block them.

Your profile will be visible on the list again if you decide to unblock someone before their story is deleted. Although your profile will no longer show in the list of people that viewed it, if you watch their story and they saw that you did before you blocked them, they will still remember that you viewed the story.

Note: Your profile will be removed from the list of viewers until you activate it again if you delete your account or deactivate it.

There’s no need to fear, as I’ve tested this on private accounts to see if my name still stayed after I blocked one of my accounts. It disappeared straight away. This means that if you view someone’s story, you shouldn’t have, your name will be gone from the list of people who viewed it instantly. 

The downside of this is that they’re now blocked, and you might feel like you have to come up with an explanation as to why you blocked them. So it’s a double-edged sword. However, if blocking them is a better solution for you that allowed them to see that you viewed their story, then you should go ahead and block them.

Furthermore, like you can see in this reddit here, your name will be removed from the viewers list once you block them.

Can Someone Still See That I Viewed Their Story If I Deactivate Instagram?

If you deactivate your Instagram account after viewing someone’s story, they won’t see that you viewed the story. Your name will disappear from this list of people that have viewed their story once your account is deactivated. Your name will be visible on the list again if you decide to activate your account before their story is deleted.

1. If You Take Too Long To Block Them

If you took a while to block someone after you view their Instagram story by accident, then they’re more likely they’ve seen that you viewed their story. When you’re viewing someone’s story you’re not meant to be, it’s best that you view their story without them knowing. Once you block them after viewing their Instagram story, your name will be gone from the list of people that watched it but don’t rule out the fact that they didn’t see it before you blocked them.

If you block them as soon as you’ve clicked their story, then the lower the chance that they’re going to see your name on the list. If you’ve been pondering on the decision of if you should block them, then check how long ago they posted the story.

If the story is about to expire, then you won’t need to block them because it’s unlikely that they’re going to check the list of people who viewed their Instagram story. This should only be considered if the story has a few minutes left if it’s been a long time before that, and you still haven’t them, then chances they’ve seen your number.

Tip: If you’re wondering if someone can see how many times you viewed their instagram profile/story, I’ve also done an article on this.

2. If You Block Them And You Don’t Follow Them

If you block them after viewing their story and you don’t have them on Instagram, they’ll suspect that you’ve seen their story if they ever search your name and see that you’ve been blocked if someone shares your profile with them.

If it’s someone that you’re good friends with and they actively check your account, maybe it’s an ex, if they check your account the same day that they posted the story and they can see you’ve blocked them, they might put it down to the fact that you watched their story and you got too embarrassed.

If the story is about you, they’re more likely to know that you’ve seen it which is why you’ve blocked them. This is especially if the story is about something they know will upset you. Since they don’t have you, they’ll probably think that a mutual friend sent it to you which is why you saw the story and blocked them.

Tip: Other situations that you may be worried about someone knowing you viewed their story is if you’re not friends with them and you view their story/profile, or you view their story/profile and you don’t have an account. Knowing what happens will protect you in every situation.

3. You Block Them As Soon As They Post It

If you block them straight after you see the story, they’re going to think that you saw their story even though they can’t see your profile in the list of viewers.

If this is a close friend or an ex that could potentially post something that could affect you, then they’ll know that this is why you blocked them. If they constantly view your profile, maybe you’re in their recent chat list so they always check your profile, or you always post a story and they consciously make note of it, but now they notice that your name is gone from their recent chat list when they look for it or they can’t find it when you search;

If they check your profile once they post something and can’t find you because it could’ve upset you, they’ll know that they’re blocked and it’s because of the story.

If You Unblock Them

If you unblock them before the story expired, your name will reappear on the list of story viewers and this will let them know that the story is why you blocked them. If you’ve watched someone’s Instagram story by accident, you need to make sure that their story has expired before you unblock them.

Even if their story has expired, you should leave them blocked a few more days or weeks to make it appear like this wasn’t why you blocked them. If they saw your profile the day they posted the story, but the day after they’re unblocked and you make it worse by adding them again after unblocking them, they’ll know that you saw the story.

If You’re Worried, You Can Deactivate Your Account

If you’re anxious that your profile is on the list of people that viewed their story, you should deactivate your account to make sure that your profile isn’t on the list of viewers. This means that you don’t have to block them and if you decide to add them as a friend again, you won’t have to face the embarrassment of doing that.

Deactivating your Instagram account doesn’t let the person know that you saw their story whereas blocking them and adding them back as a friend again will let them know that you blocked them because of the story. If you don’t want them to think that you blocked them because of the story, then you’ll need to deactivate your Instagram account instead as you don’t have to deal with the fact of adding back again as a friend once you’re over it.

If It’s Nearly Expired, You Don’t Need to Block Them

If their story is about to expire, then there’s no point blocking them. Since they’re unlikely to check who has viewed their story when it’s due expiry, blocking them and adding back later as a friend will only cause you more problems. If you viewed their story a long time before it expired, then they’re probably going to check who viewed their story and see your name there. If this is your situation, then just block them.

Warning: Even before you view their profile, you may be worried that they’ll be notified that you searched their name. There are a few things you need to be aware of before doing this

How To Make Sure They Can’t See That You’ve Watched Their Story

If you’ve accidentally watched someone’s story and you didn’t want them to know, this can be a bad situation because you’re already viewed the story. Or, you may want to watch someone’s story, but you don’t want them to find out that you watched it.

When you view someone’s story, your profile will come up in a list of people that have viewed the story. To watch a story without someone, know, you’ll have to avoid this list altogether, or you can remove yourself from the list after watching it.

Airplane Mode

The first way to watch someone’s story without them knowing is to put your device on airplane mode. When your device is on airplane mode and you watch a story, Instagram won’t be able to tell because your device wasn’t connected to the internet whilst using the app. Before you put your device on airplane mode, you first need to refresh the Instagram app until Instagram knows that you aren’t connected to the internet.

Block Them

If you’ve already watched the story, but you don’t want them to know. The only way to remove yourself from this list is to block them. When you block someone, your name will be deleted from the list of people who viewed their Story. Once their story has been deleted, then you can unblock them and add them again, but this will be awkward.

Note: If you try to unblock them before their story has been deleted, then your profile will show up on the list.

Delete your Account

Another way to do this without having to block them and add them again is to delete your account until the story is deleted. Your name will be removed from the list of people who viewed the story because your profile will be temporarily deleted from Instagram. Once the story has been deleted, you can log into your Instagram account.

Note: if you try to log back in before their story has been deleted, then your profile will still be visible on the list of people who have viewed it.

Check Out Their Story On A Burner Account

Rather than viewing their story using your main Instagram account, you should do this using an account that’s anonymous and isn’t tied to you. From there, you can be able to watch anyone’s stories that you want without them knowing it was you.

Tip: Because you’re going to be using a burner account, you may be wondering if there are ways that someone can find out whos behind a fake instagram account.

Half Swiping

On the person’s story before the story you want to view without them knowing, you can half swipe. Half swiping is when you swipe right from the previous story onto the next story without letting go of the screen so the view isn’t registered.

This means that you’re still on one story whilst viewing the next one. But because you haven’t let go of your fingers, Instagram can’t register a view on that person’s story since you haven’t fully committed to watching it.

The downside of this is that you can only see the thumbnail of the story and not the whole thing. This means that you can watch their story without your name appearing on the list of people who have watched it.

How to Unview Someone’s Story on Instagram

The only way to unview someone’s Instagram story is to either block them or deactivate your Instagram account. When you block them or deactivate your Instagram account after viewing their story, your name will disappear from the list of people that viewed their story.

If you decide to log into Instagram again while their story is still up, then your name will appear on the list again, same as if you decide to unblock them.

But, you might get lucky and your name might be so far down on the list that they’re unable to see your name there. When too many people have viewed a story, then the list cuts off and they’re unable to see some of the people who viewed their story.

David Johnson is a freelance writer with 9 years of experience writing for Techzillo and other established tech outlets like iMore. His focus and key interests are Apple and accessibility as well as consumer technology in general. Read our Editorial Guidlines and Fact Checking process.

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