Fast Hack: View Instagram’s Most Recent Followers

Being able to identify your competitors’ most recent followers makes it easier for you to spot a new targeted audience. However, after the 2021 update, Instagram has made it difficult for you to track someone’s most recent followers. 

Earlier, the follower list used to appear in chronological order, from where you could have easily sorted out the newest additions to someone’s following; however, as Instagram started focusing more on their privacy policies, they have removed this feature. 

Now they have randomized the list so much that if you see someone’s followers list from two different devices, you might see two different lists! Then is it impossible to know someone’s most recent followers? 

No, and that is what we will discuss today. So, to find out who checked your profile and followed you recently on Instagram, keep reading. 

How Do You See Someone’s Recent Followers On Instagram? 

As mentioned before, after Instagram’s update in 2021, any list, whether it is someone’s follower or following list, does not appear in chronological order. In fact, for some users, you might not even see the entire followers list, as that is made only accessible to the user. 

So, if you check out the followers section of someone in this way, you will be shown a random list of followers consisting of a maximum of 50 people. You can refresh the list, and new names will randomly replace the previous names. 

Therefore, it is fair to say that finding out someone’s recent followers on Instagram without using a third-party application will barely give accurate results. You need to have very close observation powers to find out someone’s most recent followers. But even if you do, please remember, the techniques still don’t guarantee accuracy and can only give you a close estimation. 

Method 1: Using Instagram’s Mobile App

There’s a high chance that when you open someone’s follower list, it is actually in chronological order (the newest followers at the top); while it might not be arranged in that order end-to-end, you can still get a clue of who are the latest additions. And it should help you spot new followers and target them. 

However, to check the accuracy of the method, we recommend doing a small experiment. 

Step 1: Open the Instagram app and go to the profile that you are targeting. 

Step 2: Click on the “Followers” section of that profile and take note of the list of the names shown to you.

Step 3: From a spare account (or you can use your own, but we recommend using a spare one), follow the account. And if you were already following them, you need to unfollow them and follow them again immediately. 

Step 4: Once you follow/ re-follow them, open their “Followers” list once again and see if your name shows on the top of the list. If your account name is showing at the very beginning of their follower list, there’s a high chance that the names near yours are recent, too. 

Please note that if someone has restricted showing their entire followers list, then this method won’t work.

However, don’t worry!

We have discussed a method later where you can find the recent followers of those Instagram user accounts as well. 

Method 2: Using Instagram’s Progressive Web Application (PWA)

Using Instagram’s Progressive Web Application (PWA), you can spot someone’s new followers. Again, this method is not a hundred percent foolproof, but it should give you a rough estimate of the new followers someone gained. 

Step 1: Launch your browser and log into your Instagram account. 

Step 2: Go to the account whose recent followers you want to check.

Step 3: Click on their “Followers” section and take note of the list that is shown to you. 

Step 4: Go and follow the user. If you already follow them, you need to first unfollow and then follow them again. 

Step 5: Again, go to their “Followers” section and see if your user name shows at the top of the list. If it does, that means there is a chance that the names after your username are also new followers of that account. 

Again, this method might fail if the account’s follower list shows a line like “Only ‘the username’ can see all their followers”. In such cases, the account owner has denied access to their entire follower list, and revealing it is against the privacy policies of Instagram. 

But you might wonder why Instagram is so secretive about this information. 

Well, while we only know that this secrecy has to do with the privacy policies of Instagram, if we try to rationalize it from a business point of view, there are a lot of people who keep a tab on their competitors’ followers to identify their potential target audience.

And if done correctly, it can be used as a strategy for growing one’s Instagram following quickly and effectively. And if that was your plan, too, then don’t worry; apart from solving this problem, we have another solution too. 

Instead of trying so hard, you can take an even easier route and follow this pro tip. 

Pro Tip: You can simply buy instagram followers cheap, and boost your profile’s dedicated follower base in literally no time!

Insights Into How Instagram Followers List Is Sorted in 2023

The knowledge of the Instagram Following List Order algorithm, followed by the tricks we mentioned above, might help you analyze the follower list better. So, take a quick look at these before you try out the methods we mentioned here. 

The sorting of the lists will vary based on how old the account is. However, please note these assumptions are drawn after analyzing multiple instagram accounts, but none of these are confirmed by Instagram officially. 

If you are looking at a relatively new account, especially one that has less than 200 followers, you will find that their follower list may be arranged in alphabetical order. Now, the arrangement is not made based on their usernames or “handles” but rather the registered full name of the Instagram users following that particular account.

On the other hand, if you are looking at a profile that is comparatively old and has decent engagement with its followers (no matter if the count is less than 200), you will find their followers list randomly arranged. 

Often the algorithm will arrange the names in the order of relevancy and connection. Meaning it will show those names that have the most engagement with that user, first. This is why it might even show some of the oldest followers at the top of the list, as the algorithm finds them to have a strong connection with the user. 

The Instagram Explorer page also functions on a similar rule. The page is unique for everyone and is curated explicitly based on the topics they search for, the people they follow, or the type of content they engage the most with. 

The Most Accurate Method Of Checking Someone’s Most Recent Followers

The only way in which you can get the most accurate results is by using a third-party tool. But if you are trying to track who your favorite celebrity followed or unfollowed for all things purely entertainment, then you might not want to invest in these tools. Why? Most of these third party tools are paid ones.

However, if you are tracking all this for business purposes, then you have plenty of social media monitoring tools to choose from. Some of the most popular names are Snoopreport, Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Mention, etc., and these tools can help you do a lot more than just social media monitoring. 

With these tools, you can get accurate data within a few clicks and without any hassle. All you need to do is provide them with the target user’s profile, and they will present you with data on their recent followers. 

Can Your Followers Be Sorted By Date? 

Unfortunately, there is no feature on the Instagram app or PWA that can sort your followers by date; however, unlike seeing someone else’s followers list, when you check your own followers list, it is shown to you in chronological order of following.

This means that you will find your latest followers at the top of your “Followers” list and the old ones at the end. So, you do not need to put extra effort into analyzing and identifying the order of your latest followers. 

However, if you want to know exactly when they started following you, you might not be able to find that. If you have very little activity, you can still get some ideas; for example, you may be able to see when two of the latest followers started following you, but that will also appear in a discreet way. 

You won’t know the exact date and time but will rather see indicators like 1 day, 1w, 6w, etc., that can give a rough estimate. 

Can You See Who Views Your Instagram? 

If you are curious about who checked your profile or who keeps a tab on your Instagram activities (aka stalks you), you would be disappointed to know that you can’t possibly know that, even if you are a business account user. 

The most a business account does is give you insights into your audience’s demographic, but nothing specific can help you identify them individually. 

In fact, there is also no such paid tool that can help you in this department, so please be careful if you are told otherwise. The only possible way to save yourself from stalkers on Instagram is to have a private account where you control your followers and who you share your profile activities with. 

Final Thoughts 

We hope this article answered your question about how to see someone’s most recent followers on instagram. While we have mentioned that a lot of times, these are not a hundred percent flawless methods, they have worked for many users! So, if you don’t need accurate results and want to save money, you can definitely try them. 

However, if getting an accurate list is a must for you, we would suggest you invest in a paid tool that comes with a social media monitoring feature so that you can track any user’s activities in detail and in an error-free way.