How to See What Someone Likes on Instagram in 2026 (Truth)

Short version: there is no native way to see what posts another person likes on Instagram in 2026. Instagram removed the "Following" activity feed — the tab that once let you watch friends' likes and comments in real time — back in 2019, and it never came back. Today, the only likes you can directly observe are the ones visible on a post you already opened, where you can tap the like count and scroll the list. Everything else — the apps and sites promising a feed of someone's recent likes — is a myth, a scam, or both. Below is exactly what disappeared, what you can still infer, and why the "stalker" tools cannot deliver.

What Instagram Removed in 2019

For years, Instagram had a Following tab inside the Activity (heart) screen. It showed you a live feed of what the people you followed were doing: posts they liked, accounts they started following, comments they left. It was, frankly, a surveillance feature, and people used it exactly that way — to keep tabs on partners, exes, and crushes.

Instagram deleted it in October 2019. The company's stated reasoning was that many users did not realize their activity was visible to followers in that feed, and it was a privacy problem. Whatever the motive, the outcome is firm: there is no Following activity feed anymore, and no setting brings it back.

This is the single most important fact to internalize. Most "how to see someone's likes" advice online is recycled from before 2019 and is simply wrong now.

What You CAN Still See

The native surface area for observing likes is small but real:

• The like list on a specific post. If you open a post, tap the likes count, and scroll, you see who liked it. To find whether a specific person liked a specific post, you would have to open that exact post and look. There is no aggregated view across posts.
• Likes on your own content. You see everyone who liked your posts, reels, and stories. The order that list appears in is not random — we break down what drives it in the Instagram likes order explained.
• Public tagged and mentioned activity. If someone is tagged in or comments on public posts, that is visible by visiting those posts — but this is comments and tags, not silent likes.

That is the whole list. There is no feed, no timeline, no per-user "recent likes" view. To learn that a person liked a particular post, you essentially have to already be looking at that post.

The Third-Party "See Their Likes" Myth

Type the question into any search engine and you will find apps swearing they can show you a feed of anyone's recent likes. Here is why none of them work:

1. The data is not exposed. Instagram does not publish a per-user likes feed through any public interface. There is no source for these apps to pull from. They cannot show what Instagram itself does not surface.
2. They cannot see into private accounts. No legitimate tool can read activity from a private profile. Claims to the contrary require account compromise.
3. The business model is credential theft or ad bait. The usual flow asks you to log in "to connect" or makes you complete endless "human verification" surveys. The first steals your password; the second wastes your time and earns the operator ad money. Either way, you never get the promised feed.

If a tool says it reveals another person's likes, it is lying. The underlying data does not exist in any place an outside app can reach. For the broader pattern of how these "tracking" tools deceive people, see the Instagram story stalker myth, which dissects the same scam mechanics applied to story views.

What You Can Legitimately Infer

You cannot get a likes feed, but observation still tells you things:

• Public comments and tags. These are visible and often more telling than likes anyway.
• Who appears in their followers and following. New mutual connections can hint at interest; our breakdown of how the following list is ordered explains what that order does and does not mean.
• Story and post engagement on your own content. You see who engages with you, which is the most reliable signal of interest in your direction.
• Suggested-search patterns. The accounts Instagram pre-loads in your search bar relate to your own activity, not someone else's — but people misread them; we explain in the Instagram suggested search order.

None of this reconstructs a likes feed. It is circumstantial at best, and reading too much into it is how people drive themselves to anxiety over nothing.

The Privacy Reality (And the Flip Side)

The disappearance of the Following feed cuts both ways. No one can see your likes feed either. Your likes are visible only on the individual posts you liked, to people who open those posts and scroll the list. There is no aggregated trail of your activity that followers can browse.

If you still want to minimize even that exposure, you can be selective about what you like publicly, and you can control how your own engagement appears through Instagram story and like privacy settings. And if the real goal behind "what does this person like" is quietly observing what they post without tipping them off, the honest tool for that is anonymous viewing — covered in how to browse Instagram anonymously.

Why People Want This (And Better Questions to Ask)

It is worth being honest about the motive, because it usually points to a better question. People search "how to see what someone likes" for a handful of reasons:

• Suspicion about a partner. They want to know who an account is engaging with. But likes are a noisy, unreliable signal — people like things absentmindedly, and the absence of likes proves nothing. Building trust or having a direct conversation will tell you more than reconstructing a likes feed ever could, even if one existed.
• A crush. They want to gauge interest by what the person engages with. Again: likes are weak evidence. Direct interaction — do they reply to your stories, do they engage with your posts — is far more telling, and you can actually observe that on your own content.
• General curiosity. They want to keep tabs on someone's taste or activity. The legitimate version of this is simply following their public posts, which you can do openly or anonymously.

In every case, the likes feed is a poor proxy for what people actually want to know, and it has not existed for years anyway. The healthier reframings are: engage directly, watch your own engagement signals, or — if you just want to observe someone's public output quietly — view their content anonymously rather than chasing a private activity trail that no tool can legitimately produce.

The Anxiety Trap

Searching for someone's hidden activity tends to feed a loop: the less you can see, the more you imagine. Because there is genuinely no likes feed and no way to build one, people end up paying scam apps, granting them credentials, and still learning nothing — while their suspicion grows. The most useful thing to internalize is that the data simply is not accessible, so the rational move is to stop hunting for it and either ask directly or let it go.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I see what posts someone likes on Instagram?

No. Instagram removed the Following activity feed in 2019, and there is no native way to see another person's likes across posts. You can only see who liked a specific post by opening that post and tapping its like count.

Why did Instagram remove the Following activity tab?

Instagram said many users did not realize their likes and follows were visible to others in that feed, making it a privacy issue. It was removed in October 2019 and has not returned.

Do apps that show someone's Instagram likes work?

No. The data is not exposed through any public interface, and these apps cannot access private accounts. They typically steal login credentials or trap you in ad-survey loops. Avoid them.

Can someone see what I like on Instagram?

Only on individual posts. Anyone who opens a post you liked and scrolls the like list will see your name there. There is no aggregated feed of your likes that followers can browse.

Is there any way to track someone's Instagram activity?

Not their private activity. You can only observe what is publicly visible — comments, tags, and likes shown on specific public posts. Any tool promising a private activity feed is a scam.

Final Thoughts

The feature people remember has been dead since 2019, and nothing — no setting, no app — replaces it. The like list on a single post is the only honest answer, and the "see their likes" tools are credential traps. If what you actually want is to keep an eye on someone's public posts and stories without showing up in their viewer list or activity, do it the clean way: view anonymously with ViewIGStory, no login and no trace.