What happens in the case that you have liked and unliked a post on Instagram, how users are notified, and how they can miss your mistake.
Instagram is where people go to show off their lives through a camera lens. Users snap pictures and videos of themselves to post and share with their Instagram community and audiences on the platform.
People then get to interact with the posts by commenting, liking, and sharing. Liking someone’s post is generally the first thing a user will do when they see your post and like it.
A like can then be followed by a comment or share, but what happens when you find that you’ve accidentally liked a post and then unliked it?
Liking and unliking on Instagram
Since liking posts on Instagram can be a reflex action, it can be very easy to double-tap on someone’s post or click on the heart icon by mistake, and this is quite common.
Frantically, people will, within a second, rush to unlike the post immediately, but will be anxious to know if the like was processed and sent to the poster.
This can happen if you were possibly “stalking” someone (newly used as a cyber-safe term meaning looking through someone’s social media platforms), or you found yourself on a page you had no intention of exploring.
If you like and unlike a post on Instagram
For users who might find themselves in such a predicament, knowing if a person will see that they liked and unliked their post could be helpful. Instagram tells users that if they have liked a post, they can remove the like by tapping the heart icon again.
Instagram states that very soon after you have removed a like from a post, the like alert will also disappear from the other people’s notifications, if you have liked a post unintentionally and unliked it, it will still send the poster a push notification if they have their notifications turned on.
In some cases, and depending on your timing, if you like and unlike a post the notification will disappear from the poster’s notifications, but should they have refreshed their activity during the time of your mistake, they might see the notification.
Can you prevent liking by accident?
You will need to be very careful about how you are navigating through your Instagram feed and different profiles if you do not want to like things by mistake.
There is no guaranteed way to prevent liking posts unintentionally, but if you want to go through someone’s profile, you might want to initiate Airplane Mode on your device, switching off all connectivity in case you like something by mistake.
This will ensure that nothing is processed, and nothing reaches the person you are stalking, as the accidental like will not record.
What happens if you like and unlike, and the other user’s push notifications are on?
In the case where the other user has their push notifications enabled, liking and unliking their post by accident will still send a notification to them informing them that you have liked their post, which you might not be hoping for if you really did not want them to know you liked the post unintentionally.
Luckily, not everyone has their push notifications on, so it may still be possible for you to get away with the accidental like.
If you like and unlike 10 seconds later with push notifications off
Let us say you liked a post and realised 10 seconds later that you did that by accident. If the other Instagram user had their push notifications turned off, it is likely they may not have seen or received the notification.
You would only be at risk if for some reason, the other user was on their app in the space of 10 seconds and refreshed their notifications. If this is not the case, then you will most probably be safe with the like going unnoticed.
Final thoughts
Instagram is a playground for interacting with people’s posts, whether they are pictures or videos they have shared of themselves, it is very easy to like, comment and share people’s content.
Liking posts can become like second nature and, thus, it can be possible to accidentally like someone’s posts.
In the case where this happens, you will like and immediately unlike after discovering that you were not supposed to like a post.
Sometimes, the user will be notified that you liked their post and in other cases, you may be let off the hook if their push notifications are disabled.