Last Updated on October 16, 2022 by Umer Mukhtar
Likes and views are the fuel of the Instagram factory. In this guide, we’ll show you how to see likes on Instagram, whether it be on your posts, other users’ posts, a viral particular post, or your own liked posts.
Table of Contents
What About Instagram
Instagram launched in 2010 but gained a rapid growth momentum only in 2016 with more users and commercial activity. Instagram users had to be iPhone users at first but soon after an Android app was released as well.
Hunt of the Facebook: Instagram app
Facebook saw the app’s potential early in 2012 and bought it for 1 billion dollars, making it one of its various social media apps. It is now independently run under the larger company Meta.
Changes in the Platform
Throughout the years the app was enriched by many new developments. At first, it used to support only images. Story feature and the ability to upload videos and reels are some examples. Instagram is now the go-to platform for posting photos, videos, or going live.
Some Statistics of Instagram
It has 1.22 billion active accounts that post the news of their lives or their business and an Instagram user spends on average 30 minutes on the app leaving a heart icon on a photo or a video here and there.
Instagram Site Never Sleeps
The number of liked posts constantly goes up and content is never exhausted on Instagram. In this article, we’ll provide some useful information on how to keep track of Instagram posts’ likes or the history of your own liked posts and some other useful features. Let’s dive in!
How to View Likes on All the Posts
On the app or the website on the browser, viewing the likes on any Instagram post is quite simple. The logic is the same in all the posts.
At the bottom of every post on Instagram, whether a post you’ve encountered on your feed or a new photo you saw while stalking your ex’s account, we see a line that shows the like count. You can tap photos or videos thus to see who liked them.
If there are any comments you can tap on the line below to see them as well.
Save posts to see later without liking
You can also save a post to view later by tapping on the bookmark sign at the bottom right of the post.
You can access posts on the “Saved” section without them going among posts you’ve liked.
New feature: hide likes
Instagram has recently introduced a new feature that allows accounts to hide the like counts of their posts for security or privacy reasons. You can also make your posts closed for comment.
You can also hide the total number of likes entirely, not seeing likes on any photo or video.
Hiding all like counts
You can click on your profile icon at the bottom right and go to your profile page, tap on the three horizontal lines on the top right corner, select settings, then privacy, select posts, and tap on “hide like and view counts”. This will allow you to hide counts on all likes on Instagram.
Hide the like number on your particular post
There are two ways to hide the like number on your Instagram posts.
Hiding it while posting
There are two ways to hide like counts on your posts on Instagram. First is when posting photos or videos regularly: when you arrive at the caption menu, tap the Advanced Settings option at the bottom. Here you can toggle hiding like number for that post.
Hiding old posts
You can hide it on your already posted past posts as well. Tap on your profile picture, select a video for instance and tap on the three dots at the top right corner, and select hide like count. All Instagram a number on your profile will thus disappear.
You can turn the likes number back on by the same procedure.
Why would you do that?
You might be wondering why there’s such a feature. Instagram claims that it’s for the users’ good and to “depressurize people’s experience”. This feature is quite helpful in that sense.
Many pieces of research indicate that social media can have adverse effects on mental health. A study for instance found that 43% of teens with low self-esteem have deleted Instagram posts because they have received too few likes.
Another found that 25% of teens admitted to being victims of cyberbullying in the past.
How to See Your Liked Posts?
Has it ever happened that you saw a photo or a video that you loved but lost it and can’t find it again? There is now a solution to that if you’ve left a red heart button on the post, a feed where all your liked posts are collected.
Where can you find the posts you’ve liked
Instagram stores the history of the posts you’ve liked. Not many people are aware of this as it’s hidden in the settings menu.
You can also unlike posts if you liked them by accident or changed your mind from the likes page.
This used to allow only 300 of the posts you’ve liked to be seen. However, with the recent update, you can see all the content you’ve liked from years before. It is also easier to find the liked posts in this way. Recent photos are at the top and the old ones are deep down.
To see your likes page: go to your profile, tap on the three lines, select “Your activity”, then select “Interactions”. From there, go to the “Likes” section. Here you’ll be greeted by the vast number of photos or videos with four of them in one line that constitutes your Instagram-like history.
You can tap posts here to unlike them as well.
Seeing comments
Also, in the “Interactions” section you can see comments you’ve left on posts and see your embarrassing self from many years ago!
You can see your “Story replies” which include your votes on polls.
Some Other Features
On the “Your Activity” section on your profile page, you can find almost everything you’ve been doing on your Instagram account. Let’s go over some of them.
Bird’s eye view
In “Photos and videos” you can find all the posts on Instagram you’ve been sharing. You can do it more easily by going to your profile of course but this way is more useful for commercial accounts that have way more content, or if you post too much yourself. It is thus easier to go over a large amount of content and find a specific post.
Tracking your time spent
If you’re wasting a lot of time endlessly swiping posts on Instagram, discovering pages, or other people’s profiles, the “Time spent” section can help you track how much time you spend on Instagram each day and your weekly average. Here you can set a daily limit and a session limit for your browsing time.
Retrieve your deleted posts
Again, from “Your Activity,” you can go on to “Recently deleted” to access your deleted stories and retrieve them if you like. This enables you to maybe change your mind about a story that you felt was embarrassing and let it back out on the world boldly.
Don’t lose your story for good
Also, after one month the deleted story disappears. So, if you want to be able to view your old story in the “Archived” section, you need to retrieve it within a month before it disappears for good.
See your archived posts
In the “Archived” section, you can view and manage the content you’ve archived–your stories, posts, and live sessions. Here the content is classified according to date and even the place they’re posted.
You can make the deleted posts reappear on your profile and also share your old story again with its first post date for good old nostalgia.
Tracking your history
In the “Your activity” section you can track your account, search and link history as well.
On “Account history” you can see the changes you’ve made on your accounts such as bio, username, name, and privacy changes. On “Links you’ve visited” you can see the links you’ve clicked on, whether on people’s bios or stories, etc. On “Recent searches” you can see the things you searched. You can delete this history on the search bar by tapping on the “x” sign and here as well.
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