Tech There’s no official way to confirm, but here are a few sneaky ways to check.
Aleksandr Zubkov/Moment/Getty Images
The group chat is buzzing about an Instagram account you all follow. Your friends are gabbing about the latest Story this person posted, but you’re don’t see them in the Stories tray, nor do you see that tell-tale sunset loop around their profile picture. Suspicious. Someone sends a screenshot of the photo. “2h” is stamped at the top of the multi-Storied screen. Surprise! You’ve been hidden from someone’s Instagram Stories.
If everyone else can see the Story, but you can’t, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve been hidden. According to a spokesperson at Instagram there’s no official way to tell if someone hid their Stories from you, for privacy reasons. Plus, there’s always the possibility of a glitch, or that the story didn’t load for you. Short of confronting the person directly, you probably won’t be able to ascertain 100%, but here are a few workarounds to see if someone potentially hid you from their story.
Cross Reference With A Friend
If you know someone who follows also the account in question, ask them to let you know when they post a Story. Once you’ve been alerted that they have an active Story, head to their page and see if there is a sunset-colored ring around their profile picture. If they don’t appear to have a live Story, and you don’t see them in your Stories tray automatically, chances are they’ve blocked you from being able to view them, or at least that one story.
Enlist A Third Party
To find out if it’s personal, or if the poster was only sharing Stories with Close Friends, use a third-party application to do some sleuthing. Sites like Insta-Stories will pull up a non-Close Friends Story from a public account without asking you to log on.
Check Again
Instagram allows users to hide Stories from individuals on an on-going basis, or for a single Story. While you might have had one Story hidden from you — say, your direct report at work hiding the fact that she was *not* in fact sick yesterday — the poster might not have intentions of completely cutting ties with you. If you ever notice them in your Stories tray, you’re not completely in the dark.
- You can hide your Instagram stories from one of your followers or a group of followers.
- To hide your Instagram story, you need to access your account's privacy settings and add them to the "Hide Story From" list.
- To grant a follower or group of followers access to your Instagram stories in the future, you must remove them from the list.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Instagram stories are a fun, interactive way to share a reel of your favorite moments. This slideshow feature lets users animate and caption multiple photos, videos, and gifs to tell a "story" beyond their carefully curated photo board. Similar to Snapchat's timed messages, Instagram stories disappear unless you add them to your profile as Highlights.
If your profile isn't private, your stories are visible to anyone, even people without an Instagram account. The only way to completely restrict the public from viewing your Instagram stories is to make your account private.
But if you just want to prevent specific followers from viewing your stories, you can add them to a select list located in your Instagram's privacy settings.
Here's how you do it on your iPhone and Android.
Check out the products mentioned in this article:
iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Apple)
Samsung Galaxy s10 (From $699.99 at Walmart)
How to hide your Instagram stories from your profile from a single user
1. While viewing your Instagram feed, tap on the profile icon for the user you want to hide your story from.
2. Once on their Instagram page, select the menu icon in the upper right corner of your profile.
3. Select "Hide Your Story" from the menu that appears from the bottom. Your story will now be hidden from this Instagram user.
How to hide your Instagram stories from a group of users
1. While viewing your Instagram feed, tap on your profile icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.
2. Tap the menu icon in the upper right corner of your profile.
Three horizontal lines represent the Instagram main account menu. Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider4. Tap the "Settings" gear icon in the menu that appears.
On iPhones, it will be the first option and on Androids the very last. Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider5. Select "Privacy."
6. Tap "Story."
7. Underneath the heading "Hide Story From," select "# People."
The number represents how many Instagram users can't see your stories. Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider8. Tap all the users you want your Instagram stories hidden from to select them.
A blue checkmark will appear next to the Instagram users you want to hide your stories from. Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider9. On Androids, tap the arrow in the upper left corner of your screen when you have finished adding users to the list. iPhone users should select "Done" in the top right.
Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:
How to post videos on Instagram in 3 different ways
How to disable comments on Instagram on a post-by-post basis
How to unmute an Instagram story on your iPhone or Android phone
How to add multiple photos to your Instagram story at once, or use a collage app
You can't edit a comment on Instagram, but you can easily delete and repost a comment — here's how
Chrissy Montelli is a writer and content creator originally from Long Island, NY. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Heart Float (Bottlecap Press) and Going to Ithaca (Ghost City Press), as well as various online publications. Read more from her at chrissymontelli.wordpress.com.
Read more Read less
Insider Inc. receives a commission when you buy through our links.