Popular among all age groups, Instagram is a leading social media platform with 2 billion monthly active users. It’s a video and photo-sharing app where you can post updates about your life through posts, stories, and reels.
Additionally, it allows you to view what others are sharing, such as if their accounts are public or if you’re following them.
In this article, we’ll check how to track Instagram activities if that account is private and you’re not following them.
Why Monitor Instagram Activity?
Tracking someone’s Instagram activity can come in handy in different scenarios, including:
- Parental Guidance: Helps parents keep track of their children’s online behavior and safety, as 70% of teens admit they’re hiding online activities.
- Relationship Insights: This can assist individuals with concerns about their relationships and partner’s fidelity in gathering insightful information and making informed decisions about their relationships.
- Elderly Protection: Enables family members and caregivers to protect elderly individuals from online scams and harmful interactions, which are increasingly common.
- Workplace Control: Allows employers to monitor employees’ activities to improve time management and productivity.
How to Track an Instagram Account: What’s Visible and What’s Hidden?
If someone’s Instagram account is public, you can easily visit their profile to view all their activities, including posts, reels, stories, and tags. However, if they’ve set their account to private, only their approved followers can see their activities.
It means that even if you know their username, you won’t be able to view their activity unless they grant you access by accepting your “follow” request.
In addition to account privacy settings, Instagram also allows its users to restrict or block specific accounts. It allows them to hide their content from specific users and removes visibility and interaction.
Phonsee App: The Best Tool for Instagram Monitoring
The most effective way to monitor the Instagram activity of a private account that is not on your following list is to use Phonsee. It’s a comprehensive smartphone monitoring app that allows you to track everything on a target device, including Instagram usage.
Check Phonsee reviews to find out about other social media and messaging apps you can track, which include Facebook, Snapchat, Tinder, Viber, Telegram, Line, iMessage, Kik, Discord, and Skype.
Here’s a list of phone monitoring features that Phonsee offers:
- App Monitoring: Keep track of activities on all popular messaging and social media platforms, as mentioned above.
- GPS Location Tracking: Track real-time location with high accuracy and timestamps and determine the places they visit most frequently.
- Keylogger: Record every keystroke made on the target device, which allows you to monitor messages, passwords, and other text inputs.
- Geofencing: Create designated safe and restricted zones and receive instant alerts when they enter or exit these areas.
- Screen Recording: Capture periodic screenshots of photos, videos, and conversations for a thorough overview of their online activity.
- Browsing History Viewing: Monitor the websites they access and the frequency of visits, with the ability to block unwanted sites.
- SMS and Calls: Access comprehensive records of incoming and outgoing text messages and call logs to stay updated on daily communications.
What impressed us the most about Phonsee is that it runs in stealth mode. It means it operates in the background and doesn’t show any notifications/icons on the target device, which allows you to track someone’s Instagram activity discreetly.
Phonsee App Pricing and Subscription Plans
To meet the needs of all types of users, Phonsee comes with three different subscription models that offer exactly the same features. The only difference is the plan’s duration, and the longer the subscription, the lower the cost.
Here are the Phonsee subscription plans you can opt for.
1-Month Plan
- Cost: $42.51 monthly
- Payment Cycle: Charged at the beginning of every month
3-Month Plan
- Cost: $24.79 a month, totaling $74.37
- Payment Cycle: The full price is charged at the start of the 3-month period
12-Month Plan
- Cost: $8.85 per month, totaling $106.20
- Payment Cycle: The full price is charged at the start of every year
How to Hide Your Own Instagram Activity
There are multiple ways to hide your own Instagram activities, including these.
Make Your Account Private
The best way to hide your own Instagram activities is to make your account private. However, it’s important to note that it’ll only hide your activities for those not on your “followers” list.
You can use these steps to turn your account private:
- Open the Instagram app and go to your profile by tapping on your profile picture.
- Tap on the three horizontal lines located in the top right corner.
- Select “Account Privacy,” available under “Who can see your content”.
- Turn on the “Private Account” toggle.
Restrict or Block a Person
If a person is in your “followers” list and you want to make sure that they can’t monitor your Instagram activity, you can either restrict or block them.
To restrict a person, go to their profile, tap the “Following” button, and select “Restrict.”
Here’s what happens when you restrict an account:
- They won’t be able to see your online status or message read receipts, and their texts will appear in message requests.
- No one, except you and the restricted person, can see their comments on your posts unless you approve them.
- They won’t be able to tag you in posts.
Blocking an account will allow you to eliminate all interactions with a person on Instagram. To do this, go to their profile, tap the three dots in the top right corner, and select “Block”.
This way, they won’t be able to track your Instagram activity, view your profile, or even send you messages. Additionally, Instagram won’t notify users that you have blocked them.
Turn Off Activity Status
Lastly, you can also turn off your activity status to prevent others from seeing when you are online.
Here’s how you can do it:
- Open the Instagram app and tap on your profile picture.
- Tap on three horizontal lines located in the top right corner to open settings.
- Select “Messages and story reply” located under the “How others can interact with you” section.
- Tap “Show activity status” and turn off the toggle.
Conclusion
If you want to track someone’s Instagram activities, and their account is public, all you need to do is visit their profile. However, if their account is private, the best way to monitor their activities is to use a phone tracking app like Phonsee.
We hope this guide has helped you understand how to see someone’s activity on Instagram and how to turn your account private effectively.
