Can You See Someone's Liked Posts on Instagram?

What exactly was removed?

The Following tab inside the activity feed. Until 2019 the heart icon opened two tabs: You, which showed activity on your own posts, and Following, which showed what the people you follow had liked and whom they had started following.

Instagram deleted the second tab outright rather than hiding it behind a setting. Its stated reason: most people did not know the tab existed. They were surprised to learn their likes had reached their followers for years.

Can any app or website still show them?

No, because the data is no longer served. The Following feed was built from an endpoint Instagram switched off; there is nothing left for a third party to read, however the service describes itself.

What a service claims	What it can actually reach
"See anyone's recent likes"	nothing — the endpoint is gone
"Liked posts by username"	nothing, unless you hand over your password
"Full activity history"	only your own, and only inside the app
"Public posts and reels"	yes, those stay public

The ones that ask for a login are the dangerous half. A site holding your credentials reads your own activity and acts as you. That is a different product from the one it advertises, and our note on who can see your activity on Instagram covers what is genuinely visible and to whom.

How do you see your own liked posts?

Through Your activity, which keeps a complete list. It is private to the account, it goes back years, and it is the only liked-posts view Instagram still offers.

Three steps.

Step 1: Open Your activity

Profile, then the menu, then Your activity. The section covers likes, comments, story replies and the accounts you have interacted with.

Step 2: Choose Likes

The list loads newest first and holds every post you have liked on this account. Posts their authors later deleted stay in it, marked unavailable.

Step 3: Filter or unlike in bulk

Instagram allows selecting up to 100 entries at a time for removal. Unliking here does not notify anyone — the author's like count drops silently.

What does stay visible on a public account?

The posts, reels, highlights and the following list. None of that depends on an activity feed, which is why it survived the 2019 change untouched.

Most people hunting for likes want something simpler. The question behind "what did they like" is usually "what are they interested in", and a public grid answers that. The posts viewer opens one in a browser without a login.

Do reels follow the same rule?

Yes, with one wrinkle. Reel likes are as private as post likes, and nobody can list them for another account. But reels carry a public view count that posts do not, so a reel shows how many watched it while hiding who liked it.

That makes reels the one surface where a public number and a private one sit side by side. Watching a public account's reels needs no login either, which the reels viewer does in the browser.

Why do people still think it works?

Because the feature ran for seven years and the articles describing it never came down. A search still returns guides written before 2019. They read as current, because nothing in them says otherwise.

Screenshots make it worse. A screenshot of the Following tab is real history, not a fake, which is why "but I have seen it" keeps the belief alive. Our note on what others can tell about your likes answers the other half.

FAQ

Five questions that follow from the answer.

Can I see what my friend liked if we are close friends?

No. Close Friends controls who sees your stories; it grants no access to anyone's activity, and the liked-posts list is not shared with any group.

Does a business or creator account change this?

No. Professional accounts add analytics about your own content — reach, impressions, profile visits — and none of it includes other people's likes.

Can I see who liked a specific post?

Yes, if the author left the count visible. Opening the likes list on a post names the accounts that liked it. That is a different question from listing everything one account has liked.

Did Instagram ever bring the Following tab back?

No. It was removed in October 2019 and has not returned in any form, including on the web version and in the Threads app.

Can I stop my likes being visible anywhere?

They already are not. Nobody can list your liked posts, and the only trace is your name appearing in the likes list of each individual post, which the post's author controls.

Removed in 2019, gone from every surface, and not recoverable by any app. What someone posts is public; what they tap is not.