Instagram may remove the evidence of an accidental like within the app, but a notification that has already reached someone’s phone is another story.
Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s CEO, recently addressed why quickly unliking a post does not always stop the other person from finding out that you liked it in the first place.
Mosseri explained that Instagram already tries to remove notifications when a user quickly unlikes a post. However, once a push notification has been delivered to another person’s device, the platform cannot reliably take it back.
This means that while the like itself disappears from the post after a user removes it, the account owner may have already received the original notification on their phone.
One accidental tap on a years-old photo could be enough to reveal just how far back someone was scrolling, even if the like is removed immediately.
Instagram’s Help Center similarly notes that an alert will disappear from a person’s Activity shortly after a like is removed.
At the moment, there is no guaranteed way to stop someone from seeing an accidental like once the notification has already reached their device.
So, if you find yourself several years deep into someone’s Instagram feed, you may want to watch where you tap. By the time you hit unlike, the notification may already be on their screen.
