What "following" means
on Instagram.
Short answer
"Following" is the list of accounts a person chose to follow. "Followers" is the list of accounts that chose to follow them. The first is their decision; the second is other people’s.
Updated
Two lists, two different meanings
The follower count is often treated as the important one, but it measures other people. The following list is the only one made entirely of choices the account owner made, which is why it describes the person and the feed they see every day.
What the number does not say
Instagram caps following at 7,500, so a high number means someone near the ceiling and nothing more. A low number can mean a careful curator or a new account. On its own the count is not a signal.
Why the list is public
On a public account both lists are visible to anyone, with no login and no special access. Instagram offers no setting to hide only one of them — the only switch is making the whole account private.
Reading it as a feed, not as a list
Every account followed is content that shows up. Taken together the list is a fair description of what someone sees when they open the app, which is a more useful question than how many there are.
Related questions
- What is the difference between followers and following?
- Followers are people who follow the account. Following are the accounts it follows. They are separate lists and rarely identical.
- Is there a limit on how many accounts I can follow?
- Yes, 7,500. There is no limit on followers.
- Can I see who someone follows if their account is private?
- No. Private means approved followers only, and that covers both lists.
See what a following list adds up to
The number tells you nothing on its own. What the accounts in it have in common is the part worth reading.
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