How To See Who Someone Recently Followed on Instagram

You can get a lot of valuable insights out of knowing how to see who someone recently followed on Instagram. Maybe you’re a business owner and want to see which creators and brands your top competitors are associating themselves with. Or perhaps a suspicious girlfriend is wondering why your boyfriend’s following count has been going up and up. 

We’ll tell you straight up that it’s sort of a pain learning how to see recent followers on Instagram. The platform doesn’t do much to help you snoop and look for follower data this specific and pointed. But it’s not entirely hopeless! You can still somewhat gauge who someone has recently followed by being sneaky, smart, and strategic. In this guide, we’ll show you how!

Is Your Instagram Following List Order Chronological?

Yes, you can see your own following list in chronological order. That comes in handy if you need to recall who you’ve recently followed on Instagram. That’s something you can do by following these simple steps:

1. Open the Instagram app and go to your profile.

2. Click the Following button at the top of your page. On the next page, you’ll see the complete list of people you follow.

3. Click the arrows on the right side of the screen to sort your following list.

4. Choose Date followed: latest. This changes your Instagram following list order to show who you most recently followed.

Can You Change the Order of Followers List on Instagram on Someone Else’s Page?

Unfortunately, no. You can’t sort the list chronologically when looking at who someone else is following on Instagram. The order of the followers list on Instagram of someone else can’t be manipulated or rearranged upon viewing. To see other people’s most recent follows, you’ll have to be a little more creative (but more on that later!).

Some sources online will tell you that people’s follower lists are arranged chronologically by default, but that’s not true. Instead, Instagram arranges the list of people another user follows according to how you interact with them.

That means when you look at who someone follows, you’ll first see mutual followers at the top of the list. These people will then be arranged according to your relationship with them. Users you engage with more through likes, comments, and DMs will sit at the top of the list.

Basically, you’ll see names that are most relevant to you right off the bat when looking through someone’s following list. Instagram arranges follower lists this way to create a more personalized experience for every user on the app.

Pro tip: If you want to see if someone follows a specific user, type their username in the search bar. That way, you don’t have to scroll through so many names!

How To See Who Someone Recently Followed on Instagram: 2 Sneaky Ways To Do It

There are many reasons why one might want to learn how to see someone’s recent following on Instagram. It could be for personal reasons, like trying to catch a partner cheating or ensuring your kids don’t follow strangers. It could also be helpful for business purposes, like doing a competitor analysis based on who they follow on Instagram.

But whatever reason you have for wanting to see this info, one thing’s certain—it’s challenging to fetch that data. Right now, there’s no feature on the Instagram app that lets you arrange other people’s follower lists chronologically.

So, what can you do instead? Well, we’ve got two tricks up our sleeve that we can share. Here’s how to see the most recent followers on Instagram from a specific user in two sneaky ways.

How To See New Followers on Instagram Through Manual Checks

As mentioned, there’s no way to see someone’s recently followed accounts through Instagram’s features. But it wasn’t always like that.

There used to be something called the “Activity Tab” on Instagram. On this tab, people could see who their friends would follow in real time. A few years back, Instagram phased out this feature. Inc. magazine says it wasn’t used that frequently by users. But it might also have been to protect people’s privacy on the app.

So now, the only way to do it through the app is by manually tracking who someone currently follows. That will require you to do the tedious task of looking through their follower list. If you have the time for it, you can write it down or put the complete list in a spreadsheet. Then, when you notice they have a higher following count, use it as a reference to see who is “new.”

This process can seem like a hassle for most people—and it is. You’ll need to regularly update your initial list (which is already time-consuming to collate in the first place). Then, you’ll need to manually check for differences between your old list and someone’s new following list.

This method for how to see new followers on Instagram on someone’s page is far from perfect. But if you’re super committed to learning who someone recently followed, it might be worth the effort.

How To See Instagram Followers in Order With Third-Party Tools and Extensions

Want to learn how to see recent followers on IG without spending so much time tracking them down manually? Don’t worry—there’s a second option, too. However, it will require you to download third-party apps and browser extensions to get the data you want.

There are third-party tools that extract data from any public Instagram account regarding when they followed the pages they follow. All you have to do is find a reputable, trustworthy, and accurate one. Then, give them the username of the person whose following list you want to scrutinize.

One such third-party tool is a Google Chrome browser extension called the IG Follower Export Tool. Here’s how to see Instagram followers in order using this tool:

1. Download the extension and install it on your Google Chrome browser.

2. Once it’s on your browser toolbar, click the icon to open the tool.

3. Type in the username of any Instagram account.

4. Click Start parsing to fetch that user’s following list.

5. Once it’s finished processing, download the CSV or Excel file. This spreadsheet will show you everyone that the user follows sorted by recency.

Note that this extension—as well as other third-party apps—will only fetch data from public Instagram accounts. You won’t be able to do it for private accounts. Instagram is known to prioritize user privacy, so it’s challenging for third-party tools to access these accounts’ information.

Frequently Asked Questions

Forget Other People’s Followers and Focus On You Getting More of Your Own!

There may not be any built-in Instagram features that allow you to see who a user has recently followed. But if you’re willing to go the extra mile, there are still ways to do it. Whether you prefer getting that data through manual following list checks or third-party apps and extensions is up to you. Either way, scoring that information will be incredibly satisfying and useful!

Now that you know how to see who someone recently followed on Instagram, you can move on to bigger things. That includes focusing on your own follower base and how to grow it. And for that, Path Social is here for you every step of the way.

At Path Social, we use proprietary targeting tools to promote your content organically. This boosts discoverability for your brand, attracting more new followers who love your content. In no time, you’ll see your follower count skyrocket. The best part is that your new fans will be 100% real, never fake. Get more followers today with Path Social!