Hey, so this comes up a lot, and the honest truth is there’s no magic trick to see a private Instagram account unless the person accepts your follow request. The “viewer tools” or “private profile apps” you see advertised are scams most of the time—they either try to steal your login info or flood your device with junk. I learned that the hard way a couple of years ago when I tested one. It asked me to log in, then I immediately got a suspicious login attempt warning from Instagram. Never again.
The only legit option is to send a follow request and wait. If you know the person, maybe send them a DM explaining why you’d like to follow—it can improve your chances of getting accepted. If you’re just curious about someone you don’t know well, you’ll need to respect their privacy.
One workaround (but still above board) is if they’ve linked their Instagram to other social media, like Facebook or TikTok. Sometimes people cross-post their content publicly there, and you can still see it without needing access to the private IG. But on Instagram itself, private really means private.
