Instagram removed the Following Activity tab in October 2019, citing low usage. The unofficial reasons — privacy pressure, strategic refocus on Stories and Reels, and the way the tab exposed relationship dynamics — were arguably more important. The feature has not returned and almost certainly never will.
What replaced it: nothing native. The data the tab surfaced is still partially recoverable through public following lists, but you have to re-sort them yourself or use a tool that does it for you.
Get the recency view the Following tab used to give you. Check recent follows for any public Instagram account → — free, no login.
What the Following Activity Tab Actually Showed
The Following Activity tab — accessed by tapping the Activity heart icon and switching to "Following" — was a feed of public actions taken by accounts you followed. Specifically:
- Posts your followed accounts had liked
- Posts your followed accounts had commented on
- Accounts your followed accounts had followed
It was, effectively, a public log of social behavior across your immediate network. For some users it was the most-used surface in the app. For most, it was a tab they never opened.
That asymmetry — concentrated heavy use vs broad indifference — is the reason the tab is gone.
The Official Reason vs the Real Reason
| Stated reason | Probable reason |
|---|---|
| "Most people didn't even know it existed" | True, but heavy users did — and Instagram cut them anyway |
| "Underused feature" | Engagement was concentrated, not zero — features get cut for strategic reasons too |
| "Simpler experience" | The same release expanded features elsewhere — simplicity wasn't the actual goal |
| (unstated) Privacy concerns | The tab made it trivially easy to surveil partners, friends, and exes — a real harassment vector |
| (unstated) Strategic refocus | Reels and Stories became the priority surfaces; relationship transparency wasn't the bet |
| (unstated) Reduced ad inventory drag | The tab took attention away from the main feed where ads live |
The story Instagram told publicly was the safe one. The strategic story is the one that explains why a tab with passionate users got removed without any path to come back.
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2011 | Following Activity tab introduced as part of Instagram's Activity feed |
| ~2014–2018 | Becomes a quiet but consistent surveillance vector — partners checking partners, journalists tracking subjects |
| October 2019 | Instagram announces the removal |
| Late 2019 | Rollout completes globally |
| 2020–2026 | No replacement shipped; third-party trackers fill the gap |
It's been over six years. Meta's product direction has moved emphatically away from relationship transparency in that time — no signal of a reversal.
What You Can No Longer Do (And What You Still Can)
| Action | 2018 (with the tab) | 2026 (without it) |
|---|---|---|
| See what posts your follows liked | ✅ Native | ❌ Not exposed |
| See what posts your follows commented on | ✅ Native | ❌ Not exposed |
| See who your follows just followed | ✅ Native | ⚠️ Recoverable via public Following list, sorted by recency |
| See who follows a specific public account | ✅ Native | ✅ Native |
| See the order of recent follows | ✅ Chronological | ❌ Native shows algorithmic order |
| See unfollows | ❌ Never native | ⚠️ Detectable via snapshot tools |
The like/comment surveillance is permanently gone. The follow data is still public — it just isn't sorted by time anymore. Re-sorting it is what tools like RavenTracker do.
The 2026 Workflow — How to See Recent Follows Now
The closest modern equivalent to "Following tab tells me who they just followed":
- Open the Instagram follower tracker.
- Enter the public Instagram username.
- The 20 most recent follows load, sorted by recency, in seconds.
No Instagram login. No app install. No extension. The same public data the Following tab used to summarize, surfaced through a tool that does the time-sort Instagram refuses to do natively.
For a deeper walkthrough of the workflow, see how to see who someone just followed on Instagram. Once you start snapshotting an account, you can also reconstruct Instagram follow history going forward — the tab couldn't do that either, but ongoing tools can.
Why This Won't Come Back
Three structural reasons:
- Meta's privacy posture. Every product change since 2019 has trended toward exposing less relationship data — DM read receipts being optional, story view privacy controls, removed visible "active now" status. A tab that broadcasts everyone's likes and follows is the opposite direction.
- Product priorities. Engineering and design budget has flowed to Reels, AI tools, ads infrastructure, and creator monetization. Bringing back a high-friction relationship-transparency tab is not on that list.
- Harassment liability. The tab made stalking trivially easy. Reintroducing it would expose Meta to safety pressure they have spent years reducing.
If you've been waiting for the tab to come back, stop. It won't. The third-party tooling is the path forward, not a stopgap.
What Lives in the Activity Heart Now
The current Activity icon (heart) shows actions related to your own account only:
- Likes on your posts
- Comments on your posts
- New followers
- Story responses
- Mentions
The "Following" sub-tab is gone entirely. There's no toggle, no buried setting, no Pro feature that brings it back. The closest you'll get to "what's happening with the people I follow" is whatever Reels and Stories surface algorithmically — which is curation, not a log.
What This Means for Different Users
Brand and PR teams lost the easiest way to see when a competitor's account followed a journalist. The signal still exists in the public Following list — but it's now buried under algorithmic ordering. Tools that re-sort by recency are the modern equivalent.
Creators lost the easiest way to map what their peers were liking and following. Likes and comments are gone from public view; follows are still public but require a re-sort to read chronologically.
Anyone doing personal research lost the casual surveillance vector. That's arguably a feature — but the people who used the tab for legitimate reasons (journalists, partner-fraud research, brand monitoring) lost it too.
For the order question specifically, see Instagram following list order explained.
FAQ
When was the Following Activity tab removed?
October 2019, rolled out globally over a few weeks.
Why did Instagram really remove it?
Officially: low usage. Probably also privacy pressure, strategic refocus on Reels/Stories, and reducing the harassment surface.
What replaced the Following Activity tab?
Nothing native. The data is partially recoverable via public Following lists re-sorted by recency — that's what third-party trackers like RavenTracker do.
Will the Following tab come back?
Almost certainly not. Meta has trended toward less relationship transparency, not more, in every product release since.
How do I see who someone recently followed without it?
Use a public Instagram follow checker — enter the public username, see recent follows sorted by recency.
See recent follows the way the Following tab used to show
RavenTracker re-sorts public Instagram following lists by recency — the recency view the Following Activity tab provided.