Perhaps Instagram’s best feature, the Story allows us a more candid and unedited look into the lives of those we follow. The fleeting nature of the Instagram Story means we tend to take a more laissez-faire approach to posting, as opposed to the grid, which typically serves as more of a curated highlight reel.
Unlike a grid post, viewing someone’s Story means they can see in real-time your engagement with their snap. You might throw your bestie some flame emojis or lend them a heart, if their snippet resonates with you in some way.
But there are times when you’d rather go incognito and view the Story without leaving your mark on it, say, to avoid viewing a friend’s story when you haven’t gotten around to replying to their text, or to see what an ex is up to. We’ve all been there!
While Instagram doesn’t officially allow you this opportunity, users have discovered a sneak way to view a Story without the poster seeing you’ve done so. Here’s what you need to do.
To view someone’s Instagram story without them knowing, you’ll need to turn on Airplane Mode. When you aren’t technically connected to the internet, Instagram won’t be able to count your view.
Of course, there’s the small matter of loading the story without internet, but there’s an easy workaround there too. All you need to do is go to the person’s page while you have internet and pull down the page to spark the re-load (until the wheel stops spinning). Instagram will pre-load the person’s Story content using your current connection. Now, go into your settings and turn on Airplane mode while switching off your cellular network. Return to their page and watch freely without receipts!
