How to look at past instagram stories
How to View Old Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories have become one of the most popular features of the social media platform, Like Snapchat Stories, Instagram Stories only appear on your feed for 24 hours, or until the person who posted the Story deletes it.
However, unlike Snapchat Stories, Instagram Stories don’t actually disappear completely after 24 hours. While Instagram Stories do disappear from your feed after 24 hours, they remain archived in the app. So, if you post a story but it expires before you get a chance to save the video, don’t worry, you can still recover it.
Like many users, you may not know that this feature exists, let alone how to access it. Let’s take a look at how you can view old Instagram Stories.
Accessing Your Expired Instagram Stories
As Instagram Stories increased in popularity, more and more users started asking Instagram for a way to access their stories outside of the regular 24 hour time limit.
In response to this, Instagram added the Highlights and Archive features back in 2017. Highlights allow you to group story elements and post them on your profile as a regular post. They’re labeled as Highlights but they behave the same as a regular Instagram post.
The other feature, Archive, saves your stories for future use. It’s important to note that your stories get archived for your use only. For other people, they will disappear after 24 hours like normal.
The archiving feature should be turned on by default, but if it isn’t, you can turn it on in your Settings. Find the Stories panel in your Privacy Settings and toggle on the option that says Save to Archive.
- To view your older Instagram Stories, navigate to your profile screen, and tap on the hamburger icon in the top-right corner.
- From that menu, you should tap on Archive to access your Stories Archive.
From there, you can re-share, highlight, and otherwise interact with your Stories.
That’s the gist of accessing your old Stories but seeing other people’s old Stories is an entirely different matter.
Can You View Someone Else’s Expired Instagram Story?
By design, Stories are only viewable for 24 hours, and there’s not really any way around this. However, if you’re acquainted with the person who created the Story, you could request that they share it with you by saving it from their Archive.
In terms of seeing other users’ Stories that have already expired, that’s about as far as you can go. This feature was always intended to be ephemeral, just like Snapchat Stories.
However, if you frequently find yourself wanting to view other users’ expired stories, there are a few proactive steps you can take.
Saving Other Users’ Stories
The good thing about Stories is that they last a whole 24 hours. This gives you plenty of time to decide whether you want to save one.
Some websites are designed to save Instagram Stories. The most minimalist and approachable of these is Storiesig.
- All you need to do is enter someone’s username and the website will find all their active Stories.
- From there, just select the Story you want to save and click Download.
This isn’t the only option, as many other websites can do the same. However, this is the most hassle-free way to do it. Also, this won’t give you access to expired Stories, but if you catch them within the 24 hours since they were published, you’re good to go. This website also works on mobile devices, but there is another option for your phone.
Both Android and iOS have screen recorders for their newer versions. You can also get a screen recorder app and simply record the story. AZ Screen Recorder is a good option for both Android and iOS. All you have to do is start recording, view the Story, and then save the recording.
Again, these methods don’t give you access to past Stories, but they do allow you to retain active Stories on your device for future use.
Screen Recording Instagram Stories
If you’re looking to save someone else’s Instagram Story for future reference you can always screen record or screenshot the content during the 24-hour active period. You may wonder if Instagram will notify another user that you’ve captured the content.
There is a lot of debate about this, but as of right now you’re in the clear to take undetected screenshots of Instagram Stories. This won’t work with DMs, and Instagram has changed this several times through the years, so you’ll want to test it on another friend before taking a screenshot of someone who you’d rather your activities stay anonymous.
Once you’ve captured the story on your iPhone or Android, you can revisit the story in your camera roll as many times as you’d like.
Viewing Instagram Stories Saved as Highlights
Thanks to the highlights feature on Instagram, you may get lucky and revisit your favorite content as much as you’d like by visiting your friend’s profile.
When a story is created, the account owner has the option of saving the story as a Highlight.
The story will remain on their profile until the user deletes it. It’s a permanent option for displaying the best content. To check if your favorite stories were saved as a highlight do this:
- Tap on the magnifying glass icon or tap on the following option from your profile to locate the account you’re interested in.
- Locate the story under the Following and Message icon – these highlights are round icons with an image
- Tap on the story
That’s all there is to it. If you don’t see any stories here they either weren’t saved as a highlight, you’re not an approved follower, or their account is set to private.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I watch a Story more than once?
Absolutely! As long as it’s within the 24-hour period you can watch the Story as many times as you’d like. Instagram does tell the creator that you watched their content, but it doesn’t tell them how many times you watched.
Just beware, if you watch their Story over and over again, they’ll see the view count increase and you may be the only person who’s seen it. This is a sure-fire sign that you’ve been watching their Story, a lot.
Can I re-publish and old Instagram Story?
Yes.
1. If you have a favorite Story, you can re-post it by navigating to your Archive folder as described above, then tap on the Story you’d like to re-post.
2. In the lower left-hand corner tap on the three vertical dots to access the sub-menu.
3. Then, tap on Repost.
4. Follow the prompts and your Story will live on in the feeds of others for another 24 hours.
5. If you’d like to re-post another person’s Story you can do that too. All you need to do is tap on the paper airplane icon and share.
If you don’t see the option, it’s probably because the other user has a private account. A private account means you can’t share their content for anyone else to see.
Final Thoughts
That pretty much sums up the resources you have when it comes to viewing and saving Instagram Stories.
Your own stories are archived for future use, but the Stories posted by other people are a little trickier. You can’t really see them once they expire, but you can save them while they’re active. Use a website made for saving IG Stories or a screen recorder on your mobile device.
How often do you feel like saving a Story you see on Instagram? If you could easily view old Stories at will, do you think it would defeat the purpose of Stories altogether? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Can You View Someone’s Old Instagram Stories?
Instagram is wildly popular for its usability, photo posting options, and Instagram Stories. The stories are displayed at the top of your feed and are available for viewing as many times as you’d like within a 24-hour period.
The short slideshow plays published content for anyone, or friends only depending on the profile’s privacy settings, to enjoy.
Once they reach the 24-hour expiration limit, the stories will disappear.
Let’s say a friend told you about a story that you must see but it has already expired. Is there a way to view an Instagram Story after it has expired?
The short answer is no you cannot view someone’s old Instagram Stories unless they saved it as a Highlight.
Instagram Stories
Quick Links
- Instagram Stories
- Check Story Highlights in Instagram
- Save a copy of someone’s Instagram Story
- Screenshot Alternatives
- Can you rewatch someone’s Instagram Stories?
- Ask them for a copy of the Story
- Frequently Asked Questions
- How can I view my old Stories?
- How long do highlights last?
All Instagram Stories have a 24-hour lifespan whether you made them or someone else did. The temporary stories are a play on Snapchat’s temporary post platform and automatically deletes the content posted. Both you and the other user have no control over the time this story is available.
The only exception to this is if they are turned into a Highlight. An Instagram Highlight is a story that lasts forever on the users’ profile page. It will not expire and only the user who posted it can remove it. If you’re fortunate enough you can view it after the standard 24-hour expiration limit by visiting the user’s profile.
If the account owner didn’t save the story as a highlight there isn’t any way to retrieve it. There are several theories regarding temporary stories and content on social media platforms. Many believe it’s something the developers use to get you to check your news feeds more often. Using the fear of missing out mentality to keep you engaged is one-way social media companies earn traffic.
To view someone’s story:
- Navigate to the top of your home page
- Scroll through the round icons at the top – these are next to ‘Your Story’ with a plus sign
- Tap on the story of the friend you’re interested in
Or:
- Use the search option in the lower left-hand corner and type the user name
- Click on the round icon for that user to go directly to their most recent active story
If a story is available for the user you will notice a multi-colored ring around their profile picture.
Check Story Highlights in Instagram
You can check your friend’s profile to see if they added the Story as a Highlight and if it is still there. If it is as good as you say, they may have thought the same and added it as a Highlight so it sticks around for longer.
- Open Instagram on your phone.
- Navigate to that friend’s profile.
- Check just underneath the Story section to see Highlights.
Assuming the story is still available on the profile you can save a copy of it. Whether you really enjoy the content or you want to share it with another friend who can’t see it, copying a story is an option.
Save a copy of someone’s Instagram Story
If the story you’re looking for is in Highlights, you should be able to revisit it whenever you like. If it’s so good that you don’t want to risk it disappearing, you can take a copy.
Let’s note: the easiest way to do this is to take a screenshot but Instagram alerts the poster that you captured the content.
Instagram also notifies the poster that you’ve watched their story.
Screenshot Alternatives
There are a couple of other ways to copy an Instagram Story.
If it’s your own Story, you can select the Seen By icon at the bottom left of the main Story screen. You should see a Download option where you can save the Story to your camera roll.
If you want to save someone else’s Story, you need to be more creative. I tend to use Storiesig, a website that lets you see other people’s stories, and download them. If you perform a search for these websites take care to read the reviews. You will have to allow them permission to access your IG account and information.
Storiesig is great because it lets you download their story content and share it anywhere. It also has the ability to let you watch stories anonymously. If you’d like to maintain a level of anonymity while snooping through your friend’s post, using a website like this is worth looking into.
Can you rewatch someone’s Instagram Stories?
Not all Instagram Stories are one-hit wonders and some are worth viewing again.
You can see a Story as many times as you like as long as you remain within the 24-hour limit. Just select the Story as you normally would and you can repeat as many times as you like.
The time limit still applies though so unless the poster is going to add it as a Highlight, you’re going to need to make the most of it while it’s there unless you save a copy for yourself.
Ask them for a copy of the Story
You cannot turn a reposted Story into a Highlight and Instagram has no official way to save copies of someone else’s work even though there are workarounds. If those two download websites don’t cut it, you have other options. Just ask the person who posted the Story to send you a copy of it.
You can then download it as you need. Once it’s on the camera roll you can do what you like with it. Send it in a DM, email, or something else. If you actually know the person or not, a quick message asking nicely for a copy of their awesome Story because you liked it so much is sure to stroke their ego enough to share it with you.
Instagram Stories is an excellent part of the app. Like Snapchat, the integration of the time limit adds so much to the experience from tickling our FOMO to daring us to share more than we would if it were a permanent record. It uses our own psychology against us but in a useful way and I think Stories are going to be very popular for a long time to come.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I view my old Stories?
Fortunately there is a way to view your own IG Stories. Assuming you haven’t turned the archive settings off, your previously posted stories will be located in the archive folder.
All you need to do to access this folder is tap on three horizontal lines in the upper right-hand corner from you profile page. Tap on ‘Archive’ (it should be the first option) and tap on the story you want to view.
How long do highlights last?
Highlights have no expiration date. If you’re enjoying someone’s story and they’ve turned it into a highlight you can watch for as long as you’d like.
Or, at least until they decide to delete it.
👉 How to view other people's old stories on Instagram
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Maybe at some point you will remember another person's story that you want to see again, either to download it or just to enjoy it again. However, this may leave you in doubt as to whether you have the ability to do so and whether it is possible to return to view the story, given that in the case of Instagram Stories, we are faced with ephemeral content that "expires" after 24 hours from the moment of its publication.
At that time, it is no longer available in the feed.
Many people want to know how to see someone else's old Instagram stories, but the answer is that it's impossible to do unless that person decided Save this story among your best moments .
In fact, Instagram stories have their essence in this format, where stories have a maximum lifespan of 24 hours, after which they completely disappear in front of other users, although the one who created them has a file in which you can view them, but they will no longer be visible to other users. In addition, each person has the opportunity to leave him for an indefinite period until the moment when he wants to eliminate him in his Featured stories that can be classified and divided into any number of sections so that they can be properly organized. They stay there until you decide to delete them.
For this reason, if you want to know how to view someone else's old stories on instagram You should know that if more than 24 hours have passed since you found this story, and if it has not been added as a Featured to the user's profile, you won't be able to see it.
This time limit is one of the greatest tools of the social network, which uses it to create a strong need for users to connect to the platform.
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Check featured stories
For this reason, if you want to know how to view other people's old stories on instagram If 24 hours have not passed since the publication date, you can very easily consult him, as you will only need to go to the profile of this a specific person, where you can once again view all his stories, so that it will be very simple.
You can consult with him.
If more than 24 hours have passed, your only option is to view the highlighted stories, but you will only be able to see this if you meet a person who has chosen to save their post so that other people can consult whenever they want.
In this sense, you should know that the story categories are sorted from left to right by last update date , so the category of stories for which a more recent history was saved will appear in the first position. However, it has a downside: to get to that latest published story (or one of the latest), you'll have to go through all the saved stories in that category.
In case it's a collection of short stories that doesn't have many stories, this won't be a big problem, but it can get a little tedious if there are dozens of stories in one collection. Either way, this is one way to re-see a story that was previously posted by someone else that you want to save.
Save a copy of someone else's Instagram story
If you find it's available in their featured stories when you search how to view someone else's old Instagram stories , you can see it again whenever you want, but you should keep in mind that any time that same person wishes, you can remove it so that it is no longer in this section, or it may simply make it impossible for you to see their stories.
For this reason, if you want to save it, you can take a screenshot, but you must remember that the other person will know that you made them .
If this is your own story, just go to the icon at the bottom left of the screen, where you can find the option to download the story so that it becomes present in your gallery. If you want to save the history of another person, you will have to go to various web services or applications that offer this possibility, which we have already talked to you about from time to time.
However, you should be aware that in the vast majority of cases, these applications only allow you to get the stories of people whose profile is public, so you will find it impossible to do so in all cases where it is concerned. . a person who decides to make their profile private, which is most people today.
In addition, you must remember that due to the ethical values of , it is not okay to steal or keep other people's photos , so in case you are interested in a specific story, it is recommended to always ask this person about it so that he can give give you permission to save it by taking a picture or recording a video screen using your terminal, or directly by whoever sends it to you.
This is the best way to upload content that interests you so that you don't break anything and the other person knows you might have the same story for you. If you really know this person, and also if you do not, it is recommended that send a private message to through the app, kindly asking him for a copy of his story, arguing its reasons. So it's possible that unless it's something very personal, he won't have a problem filming.
How to view old stories on Instagram anonymously
their privacy, at the moment there is no possibility in the application that would allow you to see another user's history anonymously. However, there are various options for how you can solve this problem. It is about them that we will talk in this article.
To view history anonymously, we suggest using the following options:
- Create a second account. On Instagram, you can link up to 5 accounts to one phone number. They can be used to view pages that are interesting and go unnoticed.
All you need is to come up with another nickname, password and link the profile to a valid phone number. The application will remember these actions and you can easily switch between profiles and see the stories of others, without giving himself away. - Use special grammarter service. Let's take a closer look at its functions and capabilities. The resource is located at the link https://gramster.ru/ and allows you to watch other people's stories without only anonymously, but also for free. To start using it, download utilities from App Store or Google Play, log in and see the history of any of your subscribers, remaining incognito.
Also with it you can download photos, videos and avatars of any user, and view avatars in full size. if you use the full version of the site, the application from Google Chrome will help you to see the history unnoticed by its creator, which is called Crome IG story. To start using:
- Download the add-on from the Chrome app store.
- Log in to your account.
- Next to the list of stories, tap on the eye icon and click on the "Anonymous Viewing Enabled" button. Select the stories you are interested in.
This method has a number of limitations:
- Unable to scroll through titles automatically.
- To move from one profile to another, you must first close the first and only then open the second
There is another unofficial application that also solves the problem of anonymous viewing of stories. It's called StoryView for Instagram. You can also visit the App Store or Google Play to download it. Please note that the application is unofficial, so it is not clear how setting it will affect your data.
If you want to see your old stories, use the archive. Not so long ago, Instagram introduced a new option to users - the archive of stories. A special repository where stories go after 24 hours have passed and they have been deleted from the feed.
