When you watch a story in the Instagram app, your name goes into the owner's viewer list. Sometimes you'd rather look without that: checking a brand, a competitor, or an account you don't want to follow yet.
How anonymous viewing works
An anonymous story viewer fetches the stories of a public account from its own side, then shows them to you. Instagram only records the viewer it knows about, and that isn't you, so your name never appears. You don't need an Instagram account, and you don't log in.
- Open the story viewer.
- Type the username, or paste a link to the profile.
- Watch the stories and highlights. Tap download to save a photo or video in its original quality.
What it can't do
- Private accounts stay private. No legitimate tool can show a private account's stories. Sites that claim they can are after your data or your money.
- Stories vanish after 24 hours. If an account posted nothing in the last day, there's nothing to show, but its highlights stay up.
- Close Friends stories are only shown to the people on that list, so they never appear.
Use it fairly
Looking at public content is fine. Using it to follow, harass or pressure someone is not, and it's against our terms. If an account blocked you, respect that.