How to See What Someone Likes on Instagram in 2026: 5 Methods That Work

Instagram pulled the Following Activity tab in October 2019. That was it. The one place you could see what someone liked, gone overnight, with no heads-up and nothing to replace it.

So now what? Maybe you are a parent and your teen's feed feels like a complete mystery. Or you want to understand what kind of content your partner keeps gravitating toward. Could be a marketer watching a competitor's engagement habits, or honestly, you just want to see what your crush is into before you slide into the DMs. Whatever brought you here, the question did not disappear when Instagram did. They just stopped making the answer easy to find.

Five methods still work in 2026. Some are free and will eat your afternoon. One automates the whole thing.

TL;DR

1. Check individual post like lists manually (free, painfully slow)
2. Use Instagram's "Liked by" feature on Reels (free, limited to Reels content)
3. Track likes automatically with DolphinRadar (weekly reports, starts at $2.75/mo annual)
4. Browse posts from accounts they follow (free, extremely time-consuming)
5. Use device-based monitoring apps (requires physical access to their phone)

What Instagram Changed and Why It Matters

The Following Activity tab got pulled in 2019. Before it disappeared, you could tap the heart icon and get a running list of posts people you followed were liking and commenting on. Instagram's head Adam Mosseri called it confusing, said most users did not even know it was there. Maybe. Or maybe it just showed too much.

Fast-forward to 2026 and there is a partial replacement of sorts. A "Liked by Friends" section has been showing up in the Reels tab for some accounts. What you get: Reels that people you follow have liked. That's all for now, and not everyone has it yet.

Here is where things stand. Public accounts still have their individual post likes technically visible to anyone. But Instagram does not collect that information in one place for you anymore. You dig through it post by post, or you bring in a third-party tool to do it.

Before getting into the methods: everything below only works reliably with public Instagram accounts. Private accounts keep their activity locked, and no legitimate tool gets around that.

Method 1: Check Post Like Lists Manually

Costs nothing. Takes forever. But it works.

Go to any public Instagram post and tap the "liked by" count below it. A full list loads. If the person you are looking for liked that post, their name is in there.

How to do it:

1. Visit the profile of an account you think they interact with
2. Open a recent post
3. Tap the like count to see the full list
4. Search or scroll through the names

Pros:

• Completely free
• No third-party app needed
• Works on any public post

Cons:

• Incredibly slow if you are checking more than a few posts
• You need to already know which accounts they interact with
• No way to track patterns over time
• Popular posts can have thousands of likes to scroll through

Fine for a quick one-off check. Not a realistic approach for anything ongoing.

Method 2: Instagram's "Liked by Friends" Reels Feed

Instagram has a feature in testing that surfaces Reels liked by people you follow. If it has rolled out to your account, you will spot a "Liked by Friends" label when you open the Reels tab.

How to check:

1. Pull up the Reels tab in Instagram
2. Scan for a "Liked by Friends" section or similar label
3. Scroll through to see what Reels your friends have liked

Pros:

• Built into Instagram, no extra tools
• Free
• Shows real-time likes on Reels content

Cons:

• Only covers Reels, not photo posts or carousels
• Rolling out gradually, not everyone has it yet
• Only shows likes from people you already follow
• No historical data or tracking over time

Useful when it is available, but think of it more as a content discovery tab than a monitoring tool.

Method 3: Track Likes Automatically with DolphinRadar

At some point, scrolling through post like lists just stops being worth the time. DolphinRadar (dolphinradar.com) handles this automatically. It pulls activity data from public Instagram accounts weekly and puts together reports on likes, follows, unfollows, and engagement patterns. Your own Instagram account stays out of it entirely, and whoever you are tracking never gets a heads-up.

What the reports actually show:

The core of it is the Activity Analytics dashboard, which updates weekly. Here is what you get:

• Likes made: Total number of likes in that reporting period, broken down by photo likes and video likes
• Liked users ranked by frequency: A ranked list showing which accounts received the most likes from the tracked user. Each entry includes the account's profile picture, username, like count, and thumbnail previews of the liked posts. You can click through to view the original posts on Instagram.
• Interest tags: Two layers here. First, a hashtag word cloud pulled from the content they liked. Second, an interest category breakdown (things like Clothing Brand, Athlete, Musician, Politician) inferred from the types of accounts they engage with.
• New follows and unfollows: Weekly changes in who they follow and who dropped off
• Activity summary: A brief text description of how active the account was that week

Beyond the weekly snapshot, DolphinRadar has a cumulative dashboard called Ties & Trails. It starts tracking from day one of your subscription and keeps building. Over time it generates a Social Map, a visual network of the tracked user's most frequent interaction partners, with connection counts across likes, comments, follows, and unfollows. That Social Map is not something the other trackers in this space have.

Quarterly and Annual subscribers also get access to an AI Insights module. Quarterly unlocks 4 modules: MBTI assessment, relationship analysis, psychological profile, and location inference. Annual gets 9, adding interests, financial status, unusual behavioral patterns, conversation starter suggestions, and predicted encounter locations. Nothing Snoopreport offers comes close to that, particularly on the MBTI and relationship analysis side.

Pricing (honest breakdown):

• Monthly: $4.49/mo
• Quarterly: $3.66/mo ($10.99 billed quarterly, save 20%)
• Annual: $2.75/mo ($32.99 billed annually, save 40%)

For comparison, Snoopreport starts at $4.99/mo but covers 2 accounts at that price. DolphinRadar is cheaper per month but one subscription equals one account. Tracking multiple people means multiple subscriptions.

What it cannot do (important to know):

• Only works with public Instagram accounts. Private accounts are not supported, period.
• New accounts need about 1 week of data collection before the first report is ready. You will not see results on day one.
• The Monthly plan does not include CSV data export or AI Insights. You need Quarterly or higher for those.
• If the tracked user changes their Instagram username, tracking stops. You would need to set up a new subscription with the updated username.
• Stories and Highlights viewing requires a Quarterly or Annual plan and is currently offered as a limited-time free trial within those tiers.

Getting started:

1. Sign up at dolphinradar.com (no Instagram login needed)
2. Enter the public Instagram username you want to track
3. Wait about 1 week for data collection
4. Receive your first weekly activity report via email

Method 4: Browse Posts from Accounts They Follow

Free option. Not fast at all.

Look at who the person follows, then visit those accounts and dig through recent posts checking the like lists. It can work if you are patient enough to spend a few hours on it.

How to do it:

1. Go to the person's profile and tap "Following"
2. Pick an account from their following list
3. Open recent posts from that account
4. Check the like list on each post

Pros:

• Free
• Can reveal patterns if you are patient enough

Cons:

• Could take hours depending on how many accounts they follow
• No guarantee they actually liked anything recently
• Not sustainable as a regular monitoring approach

Last resort territory, honestly. Works if you have no interest in using any tools and a lot of spare time.

Method 5: Device-Based Monitoring Apps

Different category entirely. Apps like mSpy and KidsGuard Pro sit on the device itself and can pull Instagram likes, DMs, the works. Marketed as parental control software, mostly.

Key differences from web-based trackers:

Important: Using device-based monitoring on another adult's phone without their knowledge creates real legal exposure. These tools exist for parents monitoring their minor children's devices, or employers tracking company-owned hardware with disclosed consent. Putting one on an adult's personal phone without permission can cross into illegal territory in most places.

Comparison: All 5 Methods at a Glance

Privacy and Legal Considerations

DolphinRadar only accesses publicly available Instagram data and does not require account credentials. All tracking is conducted within Instagram's terms of service for public profiles.

That said, public data and ethical use are two different things. Tracking is legal in most contexts. What you do with the information is a separate question, and using it to pressure or control someone crosses a line regardless of what the law technically allows.

A few things worth keeping in mind:

• Public accounts only. Someone going private is not an invitation to find another way in.
• Think about why you are looking. Curiosity makes sense. But if the answer is just going to send you further down a bad rabbit hole, that is worth sitting with before you start.
• Parents: monitoring tools work better as a backup than a first move. Actual conversations tend to get further.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can you see what someone likes on Instagram in 2026?

Sort of. Instagram removed that option in 2019 when the Following Activity tab disappeared, so checking someone's likes is no longer a one-tap thing. Public accounts still have visible like lists on individual posts, which you can tap through manually. Third-party tools like DolphinRadar (dolphinradar.com) pull this into weekly reports so you are not doing it post by post. Private accounts are a wall, though. No tool reaches those.

Q: Is there an app to see what someone likes on Instagram?

DolphinRadar is probably the closest thing to an actual app for this. Web-based, tracks public accounts, sends weekly reports covering likes, follows, and interest patterns, starting at $2.75/mo on the annual plan. Snoopreport does something similar from $4.99/mo. Neither requires your Instagram login or notifies the tracked account. Both stop at public profiles.

Q: Does Instagram notify you when someone checks your likes?

No. Checking someone's like list does not trigger any notification on their end. DolphinRadar runs the same way, the tracked account never gets a ping. Applies to public profiles only.

Q: How to see someone's liked posts on Instagram for free?

Free means manual. You can tap the "liked by" count on any public post and scroll through the list. Instagram's "Liked by Friends" section in the Reels tab is another option if it has been rolled out to your account, though it only covers Reels. Either way, free methods take real time and do not give you any running history.

Q: What happened to the Instagram Following Activity tab?

Gone since October 2019. It used to show a live feed of posts your friends were liking and accounts they were following. Instagram cited low usage and user confusion when they pulled it. No real replacement has come since, though the Reels "Liked by Friends" section covers a sliver of what it used to do.

Q: Can Instagram activity trackers see private account likes?

No. Tools like DolphinRadar and Snoopreport pull from publicly available data only. Once an account goes private, its likes, follows, and other activity are invisible to outside tools. DolphinRadar does not access private accounts as a matter of principle. Any tool claiming otherwise is either being misleading or requires direct access to the target's device.

Q: How often does DolphinRadar update its tracking reports?

DolphinRadar's Activity Analytics updates weekly. Stories and Highlights update daily for Quarterly and Annual subscribers. The cumulative Ties & Trails dashboard updates alongside each weekly report. AI Insights become more accurate over time as more data is collected. New accounts require about 1 week of initial data collection before the first report is available.

DolphinRadar promotes responsible use of public social data. All features are designed for monitoring publicly available Instagram information only.