How to See Previous Usernames on Instagram

 Social media platforms may seem similar in their overall purpose, but upon closer examination, one can identify significant differences in terms of features, functionality, and the types of popular content they host. Moreover, the account creation processes across various platforms exhibit considerable variations. For instance, let's consider Facebook, where creating an account only requires an email address (or phone number) and a password of your choosing.

Contrastingly, when setting up a new Instagram account, you will not only require an email address or phone number and a password but also the selection of a username. Stay with us until the end to discover how you can view your previous usernames on the platform. Let's begin our exploration!

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How to See Previous Usernames on Instagram: A step-by-step process

As mentioned earlier, you have the ability to access your previous usernames on Instagram. To find this information, you'll need to navigate to the "Your Activity" tab. Let's delve into the details and learn how to uncover your past usernames on the platform.

Here's a simple and detailed guide we've put together just for you. It will walk you through each step of the process, making it easy to follow and understand:

Step 1: Tap on the Instagram icon on your phone's screen to open the app. Upon landing on the Home tab, navigate to the bottom of the screen.

• Can you locate a horizontal bar with five icons arranged on it?
• Currently, you're on the leftmost icon. Move towards the rightmost icon, which displays a thumbnail of your profile picture, and tap on it.

Step 2: You will now be directed to your Profile.

• From here, head to the top-right corner of the screen and find a black hamburger icon. Tap on it.

Step 3: Tapping the hamburger icon will slide up a menu on your screen, offering multiple options like Settings and privacy, Scheduled content, and Archive.

• Look for the third option on this list, labeled "Your Activity," represented by a clock-like icon. Give it a tap.

Step 4: You will now be on the "Your Activity" tab, which allows you to manage your account's activity. Here, you'll find various options providing different details about your account activity.

• Look for the fourth option, labeled "Account history," represented by a calendar icon. Select it.

Step 5: Upon selecting "Account history," you will be directed to another tab displaying your account activities in reverse chronological order, starting from "This year" to "Earlier.

• Towards the top bar of the screen, you'll notice three sorting filters with a downward-facing arrow next to each:

• Newest to oldest:  This filter reverses the order of the activity list.
• All dates:  This filter allows you to narrow down your search using specific dates or date ranges.
• Update type:  This filter enables you to explore the history of a particular update type.
• Since we are interested in the third filter, tap on it.

Step 6: A list of update types will appear on your screen. Look for the option labeled "Username," indicated by an '@' icon.

• Tap on the empty circle located on the right side of the "Username" option.
• Once the circle turns blue with a white tick mark, tap on the blue "Apply" button at the bottom.

That's all you need to do! You will now see all of your previous usernames listed on your screen, along with the timeline indicating when you set or changed each username.

Please note that if a username change occurred more than a year ago, it won't be pinpointed to the exact date or month. Instead, you will see only the year of the username change.

Can you re-use your older username on Instagram?

Let's say that while reviewing your previous usernames on the platform, you come across one that held significant meaning for you a couple of years ago.