Here’s When Instagram Notifies Someone If You Shared Their IG Story

A lot of your time on Instagram is likely spent tapping through Instagram Stories. With one coming up after the next without even having to do anything, it’s easy for time to fly by as you see what all the people you follow on Instagram are up to. Sometimes, you might even want to share a particularly funny or interesting Story on your own Instagram. But as you’re sharing Stories from other accounts, you probably want to know if someone can see if you share their Instagram Story. Since there are quite a few ways to share a Story, the answer depends on how you go about it. Here’s everything you need to know about how sharing Stories works on the app.

There are three ways to share someone else's Instagram Story. First, you can share it directly on your own Instagram Story. Another way is to screenshot a Story and post the screenshot to your IG Story as an uploaded image, and the final way is to directly send a Story to another Instagram account via DM. Again, your preferred sharing method will determine whether someone can see if you shared their Instagram Story, so let’s go through them one by one.

When You Share A Story Directly To Your IG Story:

The only way you can share an Instagram Story directly to your own Story is when someone tags your IG handle in a Story. When that happens, you’ll get a notification in your DMs, and it’ll give you the option to share that post directly to your own Instagram Story. If you choose to do that, the account that created the original IG Story will receive a notification that you've shared their Story in the same way you received a notification that they tagged you in their Story.

So, yes, when you’re tagged in a Story and decide to share it to your own Story, the person who created it will receive an alert that you’ve done so.

When You Share An Instagram Story Via Screenshot:

When you take and share a screenshot of someone else's Story, the account from which you screenshotted the Story will not be notified that you took a screenshot or that you shared their Story. However, if the person follows you, they might come across it anyway when they watch your Story.

If you use this method, you should always tag someone if you’re resharing someone’s work via a screenshot so they get the credit they deserve. You can also look back to that person’s Instagram grid to see if they have any other relevant posts you’d like to share in your Story. If the account allows people to share their grid posts to Stories, it automatically links back to their account when you share.

When You Share An Instagram Story Via DM:

If an account shares a Story that is able to be shared by other users, you’ll see a little airplane icon on the bottom right corner. If it’s a public account, you’ll be able to share the Story to anyone in your DMs, but if it’s a private Instagram account, only people who also follow the account will be able to see the Story in a DM. When you share someone else’s Story via the airplane icon in DMs to a friend, the person will not be notified that it was shared.

Although various Instagram analytics are kept somewhat under wraps, users do have access to who has seen certain posts. So, while an Instagram user may not know if a Story was shared, they can still see who viewed a certain Story. You won’t be able to see how many times someone has watched your Story or the specific time they watched it, but you can see a list of everyone who has viewed your Story.

Instagram users can also share grid posts to their Instagram Story, and if you share a post from someone’s personal Instagram feed, they’ll be notified of it. You can control whether or not IG posts can be shared for Stories in the “Story” section of your Settings.

Now that you know all the ways you can share a Story, you know what to expect the next time you hit “Share.”