Insviewers

Editorial policy

The guides on Insviewers are written and maintained by the Insviewers Editorial Team. They exist to answer specific questions about public Instagram profiles: why a highlight is missing, how a repost differs from a tag, why a following list loads in parts. This page explains how a guide gets written, what we refuse to publish, and how to report a mistake.

Last reviewed:

How a guide is produced

  1. 1. Start from one public surface

    Every guide is tied to one thing a visitor can actually open on a public profile: the posts grid, active stories, highlights, the tagged tab, reposts, the following list, Reels or the suggestions row. A guide that cannot name the surface it explains is not written.

  2. 2. Open it on a real public profile

    Before a claim goes into a guide, we open the same surface on a public account in the Instagram app and in a signed-out browser, and in Insviewers where the viewer covers it. If the three disagree, the guide says so and explains which one the visitor is likely to see.

  3. 3. Check it against Instagram’s own help pages

    Counting rules, limits and privacy settings change. Where Instagram documents a behavior in its Help Center, we read that page and link to it rather than repeating a forum answer. Where Instagram documents nothing, the guide says the behavior is observed, not official.

  4. 4. Write the limit next to the answer

    Each guide states what a public viewer cannot show: private accounts, Close Friends stories, expired stories that were never saved to a highlight, deleted posts and who viewed something. A page that promises more than the public surface allows is rewritten before it is published.

What we do not publish

  • — Claims that a private account, a Close Friends story or a hidden list can be opened.
  • — Instructions that involve sharing an Instagram password, a session cookie or a two-factor code.
  • — Copied articles, spun text or pages built only to repeat a keyword.
  • — Galleries of other people’s posts presented as the content of the page.
  • — Pages whose only job is to send a visitor to another site.

Keeping guides current

Instagram changes how surfaces look and count. When a guide no longer matches what a public profile shows, we rewrite the affected section instead of adding a note on top, and the guide’s updated date changes only when its answer does. A changed date with an unchanged answer would tell a reader something that is not true.

Advertising and reading

Insviewers is paid for by advertising, and advertising never decides what a guide says. Ads are not placed over the viewer’s search box or results, are not styled to look like viewer buttons, and do not appear on error pages. A page that is too short or unfinished to help a reader is improved first, not filled with ads.

Corrections

If a guide is wrong, outdated or unclear, email [email protected] with the page URL and what you saw instead. We check the claim on a public profile and correct the page when the report holds. Requests about content shown in the viewer go through the contact page.

Related: how the viewer works · safety and responsible use · about Insviewers