Instagram is one of the most common places where you may wonder if someone has blocked you. It’s also hard to know if you’ve been restricted from viewing their stories, which means that, while you might still be able to see their profile and even engage with other posts, you may not be able to view their stories. The trickiness of this is further compounded because someone might block you for a crack of time and you won’t know about it until you don’t get their stories.
The good news is there’s a quick way to tell if somebody has hidden their Instagram stories from you. It doesn’t work in every case, but if the person you’re checking on has featured stories, you’ll have your answer.
The Trick: Stories Featured if You’ve Been Blocked
Find the Profile of the User You’re Curious About
Go onto the Instagram profile of a person you think may have blocked me for their stories.
Look for Featured Stories (Highlights)
If that person has featured stories, even just one, this trick will work. The stories which appear as the circular thumbnails under the user’s bio, and are in general used for highlighting / permanent stories.
Check if the Highlights Are Gone
If some person has has featured stories and as you open their profile, all those stories vanish, then it’s most probably that person blocked you from seeing his stories. Since you block someone on Instagram, they are taken off from watching both current and highlighted stories.
Understand Why This Works
Instagram doesn’t let users hide just some of their stories from specific accounts. Also, when somebody blocks you, you lose the ability to see any past stories that featured. That being said, if you are no longer seeing their highlights, it’s a sure sign they’ve blocked you from seeing them – at least for now.
Watch for Changes Over Time
Featured stories may reappear at some point in a few hours, or new stories may take their place. If they don’t, then they may have unblocked you, so you would have access to their content again. On the flip side, if the highlights are always missing, it’s probably that you’ve been banned from seeing their stories for some time.
What problems are caused if they don’t have featured stories?
This only works if the person you’re checking on has featured stories. Unfortunately, if they don’t have any highlighted stories, this trick won’t work. So if that’s not an option, you’ll have to use other indicators like are you still able to view their regular stories or posts?
Why This Trick Is So Useful
No Need for Extra Help: So you don’t need to ask friends if the person has a story or if you’ve been blocked to do this trick. This is a way to check more discreetly without needing someone else involved.
Works for Temporary Blocks: If you can still see their highlights, you’ll know that they’ve temporarily blocked you to hide specific stories from you. This is also easier to spot if someone is selectively blocking you.
A Quick Reminder: Privacy and Respect
Blocking someone from your stories on Instagram is one of the privacy features. If they blocked you it’s their right to choose who can see their content. Also, in the social media world respecting people’s privacy is key, you don’t want to cross any boundaries.
The method is quick and simple and will help you determine whether someone has blocked you from their stories. And don’t forget this: just because someone chooses not to tell you their stories is not to say that they have blocked you, or that they are deliberately not speaking to you.
Got any other Instagram tricks?
If you know of other methods of figuring out who’s blocking your stories, curious about this method, or have other questions feel free to comment! Please share your thoughts and the discussion continues.