People mix these two up constantly, so here’s the one-line split: post notifications send you an alert every time an account posts, while favorites push that account’s posts to the top of your feed without alerting you. Both live on the account’s profile, both take two taps, and they solve slightly different problems. Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s Head, ran through both during a June 2026 Q&A as the two ways to make sure you never miss someone you care about.
Post notifications: the alert
Go to the account’s profile and tap the bell icon in the top right (on some versions it sits behind the three-dot menu under Notifications). Choose what you want to be told about: posts, Stories, Reels, Live videos, or any mix. From then on your phone buzzes the moment they publish. Instagram’s help page on post notifications covers the exact taps for each platform.
What it’s good for: accounts where timing matters. A client’s competitor, a creator you want to be first to comment under, a partner whose launch post you need to reshare within minutes. Being early to a post is still one of the few things on Instagram you control completely.
The cost: notifications pile up. Turn this on for twenty accounts and you’ll stop reading any of them. It works for a handful, not a list.
Favorites: the quiet pin
Also from the profile, tap the Following button and choose Add to favorites. Nothing is sent to your phone and the account isn’t told. Instead, when they post, their post appears at the top of your home feed rather than wherever the ranking would normally place it. Mosseri put it simply: add someone to favorites and “their post will show up at the top of feed.”
You can also view favorites as its own feed. Tap the Instagram logo at the top left of home and pick Favorites to see only those accounts, in chronological order. Instagram’s favorites help page has the details, and the original Favorites and Following announcement set the limit at up to 50 accounts.
What it’s good for: accounts you want to see every time you open the app, without being interrupted when you’re not using it. Your own client accounts, your team’s accounts, the five creators whose work you study.
The cost: almost none, which is why it’s underused. The only limit is the cap on how many you can add.
Which one should you use?
- Use post notifications when you need to act within minutes of a post going live: resharing, commenting early, catching a competitor’s launch.
- Use favorites when you want to reliably see an account’s posts but don’t need to drop what you’re doing.
- Use both when it’s one of the two or three accounts that matter most. The notification gets you there fast, and favorites catches anything you swiped past.
| Post notifications | Favorites | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it shows up | Phone alert | Top of home feed, plus its own feed |
| Does the account know? | No | No |
| Good for how many accounts? | A few | Up to 50 |
| Best for | Acting fast | Never missing |
The social media manager version
Most teams use favorites as a free monitoring layer. Put every account you manage in favorites on your work login and the Favorites feed becomes a daily check that everything scheduled actually went out and looks right in the feed. Add the two or three competitors that matter to post notifications, and you’ll know about their launches before the client does.
That covers watching. It doesn’t cover planning, and this is where a monitoring habit tends to stop scaling: you know what competitors posted this week, but the note about it lives in a chat thread. If the plan for your own accounts already lives somewhere shared, a planning tool like Kontentino is where that competitor note can sit next to the post it should influence. Set one up free if the notes are still in the chat.
For the flip side, controlling what you see less of, the series has covered muting someone without unfollowing and editing your interest topics in Your Algorithm.
FAQ
How do you turn on post notifications for someone on Instagram?
Open their profile and tap the bell icon in the top right, then choose which types of posts you want alerts for. On some app versions it’s under the three-dot menu.
Does someone know if you turn on post notifications for them?
No. Post notifications and favorites are both private. The account is never told.
What does adding someone to favorites on Instagram do?
Their new posts appear at the top of your home feed, and you can view a separate Favorites feed with only those accounts in chronological order.
How many accounts can you add to Instagram favorites?
Up to 50, according to Instagram’s announcement of the feature. Post notifications have no stated limit, but become unmanageable past a handful.
