Social media opens the windows for its users to glimpse into other people’s lives. No other social networking platform does it better than Instagram. Everyone with an Instagram account has more or less experienced the voyage of endless scrolling across profiles and posts.
While scrolling on an Instagram profile, you may accidentally like a post. Now, it would not matter if you are going through the posts of a celebrity or similar public figure. However, if you are stalking some regular person, it may get embarrassing if they find out you were going through their posts.
You may immediately dislike the post, but does that Instagram user get notified about your activity? What happens if you accidentally like an Instagram post and instantly unlike it? Is there any way to check out an Instagram profile without them knowing? This article answers all of those questions.
How to Unlike an Instagram Post?
This section is usually for less social media-savvy users. Pressing the heart-shaped button under a post turns it into a red heart, signifying that you have liked the post.
You may also double-tap on an Instagram post to like it.
Press once on the red heart-shaped icon and it will change into a blank heart icon. It indicates you have unliked the Instagram post.
Does an Instagram User get Notified if You Like and Unlike a Post?
By default, when you like a post of an Instagram user, the platform will log it as an activity performed by you. It will immediately forward a notification to the user whose post you liked.
If the concerned user has push notifications activated, they will right away receive a notification on their mobile device that a specific user(you) has liked a post.
Now, if they are celebrities whose accounts are usually managed by social media teams, it is not an issue at all. Everyone likes to stalk celebrities on Instagram and there is a huge number of likes and comments on their posts.
However, if it is a regular person with their notifications turned off, won’t notice it until they manually check their Instagram notification panel. [The heart-shaped button with a red dot indicating unchecked notifications]
Some people don’t really care if strangers are checking out their profile or accidentally liking a post or two. They may take it as a pinch of salt and ignore the incident.
Does Unliking an Instagram Post Delete the Notification?
If a user is active on Instagram and at that moment, you accidentally like one of their post, even though you press unlike, there are chances of them seeing your profile name appear on their Instagram notification panel or under the specific post that you have liked.
Irrespective of you undoing the like in a split second, the notification will appear on their Instagram notification panel with your username defining the activity.
For instance, the notification will read, “xyz has liked your photo.” [where xyz refers to the username of the person who liked the post]
When they tap on the notification, Instagram will redirect them to that post which you had liked and rapidly unliked. As you have already unliked the post, your username won’t appear in the list of Instagram handles that liked that post.
Sometimes the concerned user has a very low number of Instagram posts and has the like count on their posts disabled. That way they may manually check and see who liked their posts.
How to View an Instagram Account Without the User Knowing?
While you are logged into the Instagram app, you may want to scroll through someone’s Instagram account. It may happen that when you scroll down quickly on your smartphone screen, you may accidentally double-tap on a photo and like it in the process.
There is a simple way by which you can go through someone’s Instagram posts without logging into your account.
- While you are logged into Instagram access the specific user whose account posts you want to view.
- Note down the username of that account.
- Next, log out of the Instagram app. [I suggest temporarily uninstalling Instagram from your phone]
- Open any web browser app or launch the browser on your PC.
- In the url bar type that username in the following format.
instagram.com/xyz - Let the account content load on the webpage.
- Scroll on the account from one post to another.
NOTE: xyz is a placeholder for the username you noted down in the second step.
As you are not logged in, there is no way you can mistakenly press like for any post.
If you don’t uninstall Instagram, viewing the profile on the browser may redirect you to the app. It will open that account on it by logging you in. That’s something you don’t want.
There is a caveat in the above process though. Without logging into your Instagram account, on the browser, you can view only a limited number of posts of any other profile. Also, you cannot view the posts made by private accounts.
Disclaimer: We don’t promote stalking or any such behavior on the internet. Be a responsible netizen and make all social media platforms safe for everyone.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
I Can’t View the Account Whose Posts I Liked-Unliked: Why’s That?
Most likely, that account blocked you. They probably became aware that someone they don’t know is stalking their account and liking their posts(even if it was one post). So, they blocked you for their online safety.
The Account whose Posts I Liked-Unliked Has Changed to Private.
They don’t like unknown Insta users prowling on their accounts and may have mistakenly kept the account access public. Now, they might have switched their account to private mode to hide their content from the people who don’t follow them or vice versa.
Is it possible to Prevent a User from Viewing the Notification?
NO. Once you like, comment, or share a post on Instagram, regardless of whether you later choose to delete your activity, the user whose post you liked/commented on will receive a notification via push settings or by visiting the in-app notification panel.
Somehow, if the user rarely uses Instagram, they most likely won’t see or care about you liking their pictures or videos.
Bottom Line
Now, you are clear about what happens when you like someone’s post on Instagram and immediately dislike it. I would suggest against stalking the general folks who may have a public Instagram account. If you know the person, follow them to view and like their photos or reels. Then you won’t be worried about liking their posts accidentally while checking their profile.
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