The short answer: you can't do it directly anymore

If you're looking for a way to see which posts a specific person likes, here's the honest truth: in 2026 there is no built-in way to do it. Instagram used to have an "Activity Feed" that showed what the people you follow liked and commented on. That feature was removed back in 2019, and since then the app no longer reveals anyone else's likes in any form.

Anything that promises to "reveal someone's likes" is either outdated information or an outright scam. Below we break down what existed before, what remains now, and why chasing other people's likes is a dead end.

Where the "Activity Feed" went

Before 2019, the notifications tab had two sections: "You" and "Following". The second one showed exactly what other users liked and commented on. Many people used it to track the activity of friends, partners and exes — and that's largely why Instagram shut the feature down.

The reason is simple — privacy. People didn't expect their likes to be visible to outsiders, and it created awkward situations. The platform decided that a like is a private action between a user and the author of a post, not a public signal broadcast to all followers. Since then, seeing someone else's activity through the app itself has been impossible.

What you can actually see about other people's likes

Full "tracking" won't work, but some information is still available — and completely legally:

  • Who liked a specific post. Under any publication you can see the list of people who liked it. If you want to know whether someone liked a particular post, you can check it manually.
  • Likes on your own posts. You always see who likes your content. This is your real, active audience.
  • Public comments and tags. If a person comments on posts or is tagged in photos, that's visible openly.

But a summary feed along the lines of "here's what this account likes" — that doesn't exist and never will. No settings or tricks will bring it back.

"Apps that reveal someone's likes" are a scam

In search results and ads you'll find services and apps promising to expose someone's activity. None of them work honestly, and here's why:

  • They have no access to the data. Instagram doesn't expose other people's likes through its API — there is simply nowhere to get them technically.
  • It's a login trap. Most often these services ask you to log in with your account "to verify" — and steal your password. The account is then hijacked or used for spam.
  • Risk of a ban. Connecting shady apps to your account violates Instagram's rules and can lead to restrictions and a shadowban.
If a service promises the impossible and asks for your login — it's phishing. Never enter your Instagram credentials on third-party sites.

What to do instead of spying on other people's likes

The urge to "find out who likes what" usually grows out of a different question — how to understand your audience and boost engagement. And that's where there's really something to do:

  • Watch who likes and comments on your posts — that's your warm core. These are the people worth building relationships with.
  • Use Instagram Insights (available on a professional account): reach, saves, and when your followers are active.
  • Grow engagement with content, not surveillance: questions in captions, polls and stickers in Stories, genuine replies to comments.

If your account is new and activity is still low, it needs an initial push — posts with zero likes look lifeless and don't inspire trust. A careful starting boost helps here: a few likes per post create social proof, after which real followers react more willingly on their own.

Bottom line

You can't directly find out whose posts someone likes on Instagram — the feature was removed for privacy reasons, and "magic" apps only steal accounts. It's far more useful to switch from spying on others to your own engagement: understand your active audience and give them a reason to react.