If You Accidentally Liked a Photo on Instagram And Then Unlike It, Will They Know?

Have You Ever Accidentally Liked an Instagram Photo? Here‘s What Happens When You Unlike It

We‘ve all been there – endlessly scrolling through Instagram when suddenly your finger slips and you accidentally tap the heart icon under a photo. It‘s especially awkward if it‘s on the profile of someone you don‘t follow or barely know. So what happens if you quickly unlike it? Will they still get notified?

In this article, I‘ll walk you through exactly what occurs behind the scenes when you accidentally like an Instagram photo, and then rapidly unlike it. I performed firsthand testing on dummy accounts to find out. Read on to learn how to avoid any embarrassing notifications!

Does Someone Get Notified if You Accidentally Like and Then Unlike Their Instagram Photo?

I decided to get to the bottom of this question once and for all. Here‘s what I discovered from testing it myself:

If you quickly unlike a photo right after mistakenly liking it, the notification disappears. However, if the person is actively using Instagram the moment you hit like, they will get a split-second alert before it vanishes.

To test this, I used one dummy account to like a photo on my main account‘s profile. Sure enough, my main account received a notification of the new like. But when I rapidly unliked the photo from the dummy account, the notification on my main profile vanished.

So in summary:

• If you accidentally like and then unlike someone‘s photo, the notification will be removed as long as you unlike it quickly.

• However, if they happen to be in the Instagram app at the precise moment you mistakenly like their photo, they will see a temporary alert.

So you‘ll have to hope the timing works out in your favor! If they aren‘t actively viewing Instagram when your stray finger hits like, they‘ll be none the wiser.

What If You Block Someone After Accidentally Liking Their Photo?

Let‘s say in a moment of panic, you block the person right after accidentally liking their post. What happens then?

Through my testing, I found that any likes or comments you‘ve made on someone‘s profile disappear when you block them. The notification also vanishes.

So if you do block someone after a liked photo mishap, they won‘t see any evidence of it. Of course, they might find it odd that you blocked them seemingly out of the blue!

Now here‘s an interesting twist – what if you later unblock them? Will your likes reappear?

The answer is yes. When I tested unblocking my dummy account from my main profile, the likes I had made before blocking popped back up automatically. Good to know if you regret blocking someone in haste!

Should You Disable Your Account After an Accidental Like?

Disabling your Instagram account seems like another quick fix to remove any accidental likes. But this is really overkill.

Disabling your account removes your profile, photos, likes and comments. However, it‘s a big hassle – you have to login to Instagram via a web browser since the app doesn‘t let you disable your account.

Given that unliking a photo removes the notification, there‘s no reason to go to the extreme of disabling your entire account. Just unlike the photo and you‘re all set!

How to Prevent Accidental Likes on Instagram

Accidental taps happen from holding your phone at odd angles or mindlessly double tapping. To avoid them, try this simple trick:

Enable airplane mode on your device before scrolling through Instagram. Airplane mode prevents any taps or gestures from registering, so you can peruse worry-free!

On iPhone: Swipe up from bottom and tap the airplane icon

On Android: Go to Settings > Network & Internet > Airplane mode

With airplane mode on, you can scroll and tap as much as you want without any accidental likes going through. Problem solved!

What If You Unlike, Then Like Again?

Now let‘s look at the reverse situation. What if you unlike someone‘s photo, but then decide to like it again later?

Through testing, I confirmed that the person will get another notification if you initially unliked their photo, but subsequently liked it again later on.

So if you regret unliking a photo, feel free to like it again – the person will just think you liked it twice. Chances are, they won‘t read too much into the sequence of events.

Does Double Tapping a Photo Do Anything?

Sometimes in your haste to undo an accidental like, you might double tap the photo repeatedly. Does this do anything?

Nope! I tested this by furiously double tapping photos on a dummy account. All it does is replay the heart animation.

Here are two key points to remember:

• You can‘t unlike a photo by double tapping. The only way to unlike is by tapping the heart icon below the photo.

• No matter how many times you double tap a photo, the person will only get a single notification. Extra taps don‘t send extra alerts.

So don‘t worry – repeated double taps won‘t cause any problems. Although the person might wonder why their heart icon keeps lighting up!

The Bottom Line

Mistakenly liking an Instagram photo happens to all of us. As you can see from my testing, there‘s no reason to panic if you rapidly unlike the photo.

In most cases, the person will be none the wiser – as long as they aren‘t peeking at Instagram at that exact instant. Let this guide give you peace of mind the next time you have a liked photo slip-up!