Instagram CEO reveals what actually happens when you accidentally like an old photo while lurking on someone's feed

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri has revealed what really happens when you accidentally hit ‘like’ on someone’s old post, and I’m afraid to tell you, it’s not good news.

I’m sure most of us have experienced the feeling of being a little too deep into someone’s Instagram feed and then tapping ‘like’ by mistake, which ranges from slightly embarrassing to bone-crushingly humiliating depending on whose profile it happens to be.

In an attempt to pull things back, you may have tried to quickly unlike the same post in the hopes that the notification won’t go through.

Well, now Instagram boss Mosseri has explained what actually happens when you like and then swiftly unlike a post and I'm pretty sure some folks won’t be pleased with the answer.

In a clip shared to Instagram, he asked: “Have you ever been swiping through someone’s content from a long time ago and then by accident you liked that photo or reel and then you quickly unliked it because you didn’t mean to do it?”

Yes, Adam. Yes, I have.

“So, when you do like someone’s photo we send them a notification to let them know,” he explained.

“But there’s actually two types of notifications. There’s the phone notification and then there's the Instagram notification.

“When you unlike the photo, we can delete that Instagram notification, but we cannot delete that phone notification.”

Not ideal.

He went on: “So it will still say on their lock screen, you know, ‘Adam liked that photo’.

“But if they tap on it, there’s no record of it anywhere in the app, so it might be a little bit confusing.”

Probably even more confusing if the notification happens to come in during the middle of the night while someone somewhere is taking a deep dive into their profile.

Mosseri added: “If we could delete that phone notification, we would, but we can’t.”

Offering a bit of advice to his followers, he said: “So just make sure as you’re scrolling through someone’s content from many, many years ago, that you’re careful not to like anything by mistake.”

The Instagram exec concluded the clip by saying he hoped the little explainer video ‘clarified things a bit’.

While the clip may have things a bit more clear to Instagram users, it’s safe to say it wasn’t welcome news.

“This makes it so much more mortifying,” one person said.

A second said: “So basically we’re cooked?”

A third follower wrote: “The use case is hilarious because we all know it’s an ex or a crush or a future date or an unusual situation. It’s never like, ‘oh I was in that photo from 3 years ago and forgot to like it’.”

Someone else joked: “In short: stop creeping.”

Others suggested that Instagram should put a short delay on sending out notifications to allow time for them to be unliked and then the notification can be pulled before it’s even sent out.

But while that sounds like a good option, for now it seems everyone will just need to be a little more careful while they’re doing their lurking.