How to See Who Someone Recently Followed on Instagram (2023)

Are you curious about who your friend on Instagram is following? Do you want to check who he recently followed?

Instagram is actually constantly tightening its security policies, so are there even still ways to see who someone recently followed on Instagram?

Well, let’s find out!

 

How to See Who Someone Recently Followed on Instagram

There is no legitimate way for you to know who someone recently followed on Instagram, at least not without the help of third-party applications. Instagram does not provide a sorting feature according to chronological order for the “Following” list unless it is your own Instagram profile. 

 

How to See Who Someone Recently Followed on Instagram in Chronological Order

To see a list of people showing who someone recently followed on Instagram is not something that Instagram offers anymore. 

This is certainly due to privacy matters, concerns, and restrictions.

There was a time when the “Following” list was indeed arranged by “who someone recently followed,” but Instagram again removed that feature and sorted the list by other criteria.

So, no matter whether you are browsing Instagram on your desktop device or are using the Instagram App on your phone, this info is not provided by Instagram anymore. 

But according to which criteria is the following list sorted, then, if it doesn’t show the latest followers?

Let’s have a quick look at that next. 

 

Instagram Users at the Top of the List of the “Following” Tab

When you visit the Instagram profile of an Instagram user on a desktop device or on the Instagram app on mobile (you can do so by inputting the Instagram user ID in the search bar), and then on the Instagram profile of that person, click/tap on where it says “Following (for instance, 657 Following), you will indeed see who someone is following on Instagram, but you don’t see who someone RECENTLY followed. 

So, with that said, who appears on top of the list of the “Following” tab, then?

Well, the Instagram user that you see on top of this list is either yourself, that is, if you are following this Instagram user, or it is a friend that you and the Instagram user in question have in common that is following that profile. 

With that said, it is evident that the top of the list on the “Following” tab does not represent the latest followers.

Also, when having a look at the rest of the list, you will find that nothing is sorted according to chronological order at all.

There simply is no (more) indication of the chronological order, and the Instagram users that you see in this list could have followed the account in question very recently or a very long time ago; you simply don’t know, as this info is not made public (anymore) and the order in the list just seems to be random.

 

Instagram Private Accounts Vs. Public Accounts 

Concerning our question about seeing who someone recently followed on IG, does it matter whether we are talking about private Instagram accounts or Public Instagram accounts?

In fact, it doesn’t matter at all because even on public IG accounts, these days, you can’t see anymore who someone recently followed. The same is true for private Instagram accounts, of course. 

 

How to See Who You Recently Followed on Instagram

It happens to all of us. We just spend too many hours on Social Media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok and obviously also on Instagram. 

As we just consume an insane amount of media on these platforms, be it by watching an endless amount of Instagram reels or maybe just staring at the latest holiday pictures of our best friends, it is hard to keep track of what we have seen and even harder not to forget what we have actually done.

With that said, it can obviously also happen that you just can’t remember who you recently followed on Instagram. 

Luckily, it is pretty easy to check that. 

To see who you recently followed on Instagram, follow these steps:

1. Go to your profile on Instagram (click on the profile pic in the lower-right corner)
2. Then tap on “Following” on top of the screen
3. Then tap on the symbol with the two arrows (one of the arrows is pointing up and the other one is pointing down)
4. You can now sort your “Following” list. By default, the list is NOT sorted by “Latest date.”
5. Sort your list by “Date: Followed last” to see who you recently followed on Instagram.

 

How to See Who Recently Followed You on Instagram

Is there a way to see when exactly somebody started to follow you on Instagram?

In fact, the answer here is, unfortunately, a clear “No.”

On Instagram, to see your followers, you first click on your profile (click on the profile icon in the lower-right corner), and then you click on “Followers” on top of the screen. 

Now, you will find a list of all your followers. 

However, this list is not ordered chronologically. It does not show you who followed you. 

So if you have hope that the first person in the list corresponds to the last person who followed you, your hope is in vain. There is actually no way to see who your most recent followers are on Instagram. There is no sorting option to be found there either. 

This is interesting, though, because when you check out the “Following” tab, you do indeed have a sorting option there that let’s you see who you followed last. But you can’t do the same for your followers. 

It is pretty safe to say that this is the case because of privacy concerns. It seems that Instagram does not want you to see when somebody actually started following you but they are fine with telling you when you actually started following someone (well, not the exact date but at least in chronological order).

 

Who Follows Who on Instagram

If you would just like to know who someone follows on Instagram, you can generally do that by simply opening up their profile and then by tapping on where it says “Following.”

However, this only works if that Instagram user does not set his/her profile to “Private.” If it is indeed a private profile, you would need to become friends with that person and be an actual follower of that profile (they obviously need to accept that request first) before you can see who that person follows. 

If an Instagram profile is private, you will see the message “This account is private” on the screen when going to their profile. 

On top of that, you will also see the “Followers” and “Following” count as you would see for any public profile, but the difference is that you can’t actually tap on it to get more info like who this person is actually following and who follows that person. 

 

Frequently Asked Questions about How to See Who Someone Recently Followed on Instagram

 

Is there a way to check who someone recently followed on Instagram without using third-party apps or sites?

Though one can see who someone follows on Instagram, you cannot tell when that person followed such an account. 

 

How do I access the “Following” list of an Instagram user?

First, you need to type the username on the search bar on the feed page. Click on the account that matches and allow Instagram to send you to that account’s profile page. On the profile page, click the “Following” button until you see a pop-out window appear with that account’s list of followings.

 

Can you see who someone follows if their account is set to private?

On private Instagram accounts, you can only see who they follow if you are friends. If they did not accept your friend request (= you are not a follower), then you can’t see that info. 

 

Can I see who last followed me on Instagram?

While you can see all of your followers in the “Followers” list, you can’t actually sort this list chronologically by date. With that said, you can’t see who followed you last on Instagram.

 

Can I see who I last followed on Instagram?

It is possible to see who you followed last on Instagram. To do so, tap on your profile icon in the lower-right corner of the screen, then tap on “Following” and you can then tap on the symbol with the two arrows and sort the “Following” list by “Date followed: Latest.”

 

Can I see who I recently followed on Instagram?

It is possible to see who you recently followed on Instagram. To do so, tap on your profile icon in the lower-right corner of the screen, then tap on “Following” and you can then tap on the symbol with the two arrows and sort the “Following” list by “Date followed: Latest” to see who you most recently followed on Instagram. 

 

Can I see who my boyfriend/girlfriend recently followed on Instagram?

There is no way within Instagram to see this kind of info. All you can see is who somebody follows on Instagram without any indication on when a person actually started to follow someone. 

 

How to find recently followed on Instagram?

To see who you recently followed, go to your profile, tap on “Following” and then tap on the bidirectional arrow symbol. Now, choose “Date followed: Latest” to see who you most recently followed on Instagram. This only works on your own profile.