About View Story

Why we built it

Instagram tells people who looked at their story. For most views that is fine, but there are plenty of ordinary moments when you would rather just look: a brand you are researching, an old friend, a creator whose format you admire. We wanted a tool that shows public stories without turning a glance into a notification, and without asking for anyone's password.

What we believe

Public means public. If an account has chosen to share stories with the whole internet, viewing them anonymously is reasonable. Private means private. We never try to open private profiles, and we never will.

Nothing about you is the product. There is no login, no tracking of what you search, and no selling of data. The site is supported by ordinary display advertising, nothing more.

What View Story does

Shows live stories and highlights of public Instagram accounts, lets you download them in original quality, shows the full-size profile picture, lists accounts tagged in a story and shows the most recent followers of a profile. All of it in the browser, on any device, for free.

What it does not do

It does not open private accounts, does not show who viewed your story, does not recover expired stories and does not post, follow, like or message anything. It only reads.

Who runs it

View Story is built and maintained by a small team of web developers who also run other free media tools. We answer support email ourselves and fix issues as they come up. The service depends on public Instagram endpoints, so a search can occasionally fail while Instagram changes something; we usually have it working again within hours.

Contact

Questions, bug reports and takedown requests can be sent through the contact page. For content removal, see the DMCA page.