Can You Still Track Someone’s New Follows on Instagram in 2026?
Yes, for public accounts. What changed with Instagram’s follow lists on September 9, 2026, what IGDetective tracks, and how to tell if a tracker is accurate.
What changed on October 4, 2026: Unfollow tracking was unavailable from September 9 to October 4, 2026; unfollows are now named in both directions.
By Steven Duncan, founder of IGDetectiveHow IGDetective checks what it publishes
Key takeaways
- Since Instagram’s September 9, 2026 change, the order of someone’s following list no longer shows who they followed recently.
- IGDetective has tracked new follows and new followers again since September 12, each dated by day.
- IGDetective also names unfollows in both directions, each verified before it is shown.
- A free check shows what IGDetective can reveal for any public account.
- Judge any tracker by how it dates follows and whether it still claims someone’s exact follow order.
Yes, for public accounts, but no longer in exact order. Since Instagram changed how follow lists work on September 9, 2026, we know of no tracker that can reliably show the order someone followed accounts in. What you can still see is who a public account followed recently. IGDetective has tracked new follows and new followers again since September 12, 2026, for eligible accounts, and names unfollows in both directions.
Full disclosure: IGDetective is our product. This is our own account of what happened to follow tracking in September 2026 and what works now.
This page is for anyone checking whether follow tracking still works after Instagram’s September 2026 change, including IGDetective customers. It covers follows, followers and unfollows on public accounts; for how Instagram sorts its lists, see Instagram following list order.
The short answer
| What you want to know | Possible since September 9, 2026? |
|---|---|
| Who a public account followed recently | Yes, with a tracker. IGDetective shows this for eligible accounts you track. |
| Who recently followed a public account | Yes, on the same terms. |
| The exact order of someone’s follows | No reliable way we know of. Where an account sits in someone’s following list no longer says when they followed it. |
| The exact time of a follow | No. Instagram does not show follow times for other people’s accounts. |
| Who unfollowed a public account, and who it unfollowed | Yes. IGDetective shows this from the day tracking starts, each unfollow verified before it is shown. A name that is not listed is not proof nobody unfollowed. |
| Anything about a private account you don’t follow | No, and no legitimate tool can. |
| Stories, posts, likes and comments | Yes, unchanged. |
What changed on September 9, 2026
On September 9, 2026, Instagram changed how follow lists work. The Following list on someone else’s profile in the app was already a ranking. After the change, the order stopped meaning anything about time for follow trackers too: an account near the top is not a recent follow, and the same list can come back in a different order the next time.
We have not seen an announcement from Instagram, and there is no setting to change it. Instagram documents how it ranks Feed, Stories, Explore and Reels (Instagram Ranking Explained), but it has published nothing about this change to follow lists. The Date followed sort on your own Following list only ever covered accounts you follow yourself (Adweek), and it never appeared on anyone else’s profile.
For follow trackers, this mattered more than it sounds. A tool that kept running as if nothing had changed would, from that day on, show old follows as new ones.
What we did
- September 9. Some follows shown for tracked accounts that morning were not new. We paused follow tracking the same day rather than keep showing follows we could not stand behind, removed those entries, and put a notice on the dashboard and on the pages where you buy follow tracking. Stories, posts, likes and comments kept updating as usual.
- September 10 and 11. We rebuilt follow tracking.
- September 12. New follows and new followers came back for tracked accounts. We added a free check the same day, so you can see what IGDetective can reveal for an account, and the pause notice came down.
- September 13. We updated our pages for the change and published this update.
- October 4. Unfollow tracking was unavailable from September 9 to October 4, 2026; unfollows are now named in both directions.
We did not fill the gap by guessing. A follow that happened while tracking was paused can show up dated the day tracking resumed for that account, not the day it happened. If you see a cluster of follows dated September 12, that is the likely reason.
What IGDetective tracks now
Follow tracking runs on the paid plan. The free check and our other free tools stay free.
- Recent follows. Accounts a tracked public profile started following.
- Recent followers. The same, for accounts that started following them.
- Unfollows. Accounts a tracked public profile unfollowed, and accounts that unfollowed it, each verified before it is shown. A name that is not listed is not proof nobody unfollowed.
- Stories, Story Archive, posts, likes and comments. Not affected by the change, and updating as before.
What the date means: the date on a follow is the day it first showed up for us. It is not a follow time from Instagram.
Check an account first
Not every account can be tracked for follows. The free check on our homepage and on the Instagram follower viewer takes a public username and shows what IGDetective can reveal for that account today.
Follows can’t be shown for an account when it is private, when its following or followers list is very large, or when Instagram limits the list. The two sides are checked separately, so an account’s following can be trackable when its followers aren’t. The check is free, needs no Instagram login, and the account is never notified.
What comes next
The free check looks at each account, and each side of it, separately. New features will show up there first, so you see what applies to an account.
Unfollows follow the same rule: wherever a side of an account can be tracked for follows, its unfollows are tracked too.
How to tell if any follow tracker is still accurate
A checklist for any tool, ours included:
- It dates follows by when it saw them. Ask what the date on a "new follow" means. After September 9, 2026, an honest answer is the day the tool first saw it, not the moment it happened.
- It doesn’t sell someone else’s follows as an exact order. If a tool lists another account’s follows from newest to oldest and calls that the order they happened, ask how it knows.
- It has a dated note about September 2026. A tracker that says nothing about the change and still promises the same results as before deserves a closer look.
- It tells you what it can’t track up front. Private accounts can’t be tracked by any legitimate tool, and some public accounts can’t be tracked fully. A good tool says which before it charges you.
- It confirms unfollows or doesn’t show them. A false unfollow alert does more damage than a late one, so ask how a tool confirms an unfollow before it alerts you.
- It never asks for your Instagram password. No legitimate tracker needs your login to watch a public account.
What didn’t change
- Public accounts only. A private account you don’t follow stays private.
- No Instagram login or password.
- The accounts you track are never notified.
Instagram has not shown follows as they happen since it removed its Following activity tab in October 2019 (TechCrunch). Trackers have filled that gap since, and after September 9, 2026 they fill it with dates rather than an order. For how the in-app lists are sorted, see Instagram following list order, and for what we track and never see, our methodology page.
The bottom line
You can still track someone’s new follows on Instagram in 2026, for eligible public accounts. To see what IGDetective can reveal for a specific account, run the free check on the homepage.
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you still see who someone recently followed on Instagram?
Yes, for public accounts. Since September 9, 2026 the top of someone’s following list no longer shows their recent follows, so you need a tracker that follows the account over time. IGDetective shows recent follows for eligible public accounts you track. No legitimate tool can track a private account.
Did Instagram change the following list in September 2026?
Yes. On September 9, 2026 Instagram changed how follow lists work. Someone else’s list in the app was already a ranking; since the change, follow trackers can no longer show another account’s follows in the order they happened either. We have not seen an announcement from Instagram. The Date followed sort on your own list only ever covered accounts you follow.
Can any app show someone’s Instagram follows in chronological order now?
We know of no reliable way to do it for someone else’s account since September 9, 2026. A tracker can tell you which follows are new and roughly when they appeared. An app that lists another person’s follows from newest to oldest and calls it the exact order should be able to explain how it knows.
Is IGDetective working after Instagram’s update?
Yes. Follow tracking was paused on September 9, 2026 and came back on September 12. New follows and new followers are tracked for eligible public accounts and dated by day. Stories, posts, likes and comments were never affected. Unfollows are tracked in both directions too.
Does IGDetective still track unfollows?
Yes. IGDetective names who a tracked public account unfollowed and who unfollowed it, each verified before it is shown. A name that is not listed is not proof nobody unfollowed. Unfollows work wherever the free check shows follows for that side of the account.
Why is a new follow dated later than when it happened?
The date on a follow is the day it first showed up for us, not a time from Instagram, which does not show follow times for other people’s accounts. Follows made while tracking was paused may be dated the day tracking resumed for that account.
Which Instagram accounts can’t be tracked for follows?
Private accounts, accounts with a very large following or followers list, and lists Instagram limits. The two sides are checked separately, so one can work when the other doesn’t. The free check on the IGDetective homepage shows what IGDetective can reveal for a public username before you sign up.