How to Follow Instagram Users or Hashtags via RSS

Using a third-party service, such as Websta.me*, you can follow Instagram users or hashtags. For this example we'll turn the #cat hashtag into an RSS feed we can import into our favorite reader.

* 2018-03-19 : Previously this article used the Web.stagram service. It appears that service no longer supports RSS feeds so I've replaced it with Websta.me. If Webstame is no longer working you might want to try FetchRSS but depending on how many feeds you follow that service might not be free and the free version is ad supported.

If you need more info on what RSS is, I recommend reading this link about RSS. Essentially RSS is a way to get digital news delivered to you instead of having to seek it out. If you're looking for a good RSS reader then I recommend Feedly. Here is a video tutorial to get started with Feedly and RSS.

Decide on a hashtag or username you want to follow, such as #cat. Navigate to one of these URLs, depending on what you want to follow:

https://websta.me/rss/tag/insertHashtagHere

or

https://websta.me/rss/n/insertUsernameHere

Except replace the username or hashtag with the one you want to follow. You should see either a valid RSS feed or an API error page

VALID:

INVALID:

Now that you have the RSS feed url, you can add it to your RSS reader.

That's it! It's a quick and painless process. 

I wrote this article because it was difficult to find a way to follow Instagram users without having an account. If I didn't think to check for RSS feeds then I wouldn't have known it was possible to follow without one.