Instagram is a popular place to upload videos. It allows you to add cool filters and cute stickers for more fun and charm.
If you upload a lot of videos to Instagram, you probably want to know who is watching your videos! There are several different reasons why you might want this information. First, you may want to know who interacts with your posts for personal reasons. This lets you know which of your friends and followers really pay attention to what you share.
The second reason has to do with those promoting their businesses on Instagram. If this is you, of course you want to gather as much information as possible about who is controlling your videos. This allows you to work harder to get more engagement and reaction to your posts.
In this post, I’ll show you how to find out who watches your videos, how many people watch, and teach you some of the inner workings of Instagram’s video view metrics.
Instagram Doesn’t Show Who Viewed Your Video Posts
First, the bad news: Instagram doesn’t show you who viewed a video post. While you can’t see who viewed your video feed, there is a way to find out and we’ll get to it. First, let’s talk about how the Instagram video sharing process works.
Posting videos to Instagram is simple. You record an event or load an existing recording from your gallery. You can crop, filter and edit the video on Instagram and you can also add a caption. Then you share the video as a post. Your posts are permanent unless you decide to remove them. If your account is set to private, your posts will only be visible to your followers. If you have a public account, anyone can view them.
You won’t find WHO viewed your video feed, but you will see HOW MANY people viewed it. (Note that this is for videos only. You won’t get any info for image posts.)
Hey, 1 view is better than 0 views…
If a person watches the video several times in a row, the number of views does not increase. It is also very important to note that the view counter is not valid if the post contains more than one video. Knowing the number of views your video feed received is valuable information as it can give you an idea of what interests people, especially your followers. While this may be less informative than comments and likes, it can help you plan more successful Instagram strategies to increase your followers or business success.
But what if you want to share a video and know exactly who watched it? Here’s the trick: You can do this if you share your video as a story instead of a post.
Instagram Lets You Know Who Viewed Your Story
Stories are becoming one of the most important features of Instagram. As with a post, you can save or upload a video and share it as a story. Unlike posts, your stories disappear within 24 hours after you make them. If you want to make these video stories permanent on your Instagram profile, you can save them as Highlights. Featured Stories allow you to archive your stories on your profile instead of disappearing after 24 hours.
So what if someone watches your story? Instagram tells you exactly who watched your video. To access this information, follow these steps:
Choose the Story
Find the story you’re interested in. At the bottom of your screen you will see the number of people who viewed your story. Once your story is gone, this information will also be lost, so don’t plan to go back and get a week of viewing information at a time. If you’re serious about collecting, you’ll need to track this data almost every day.
Select “See By”
Tap on the text “See by” or the profile photo above it. This will take you to the list of people who have viewed your story so far. This screen shows the view count of your active stories as well as the name of the person who viewed your video. Note that someone viewing your story can also react or respond. This is another great way to gather information about the impact of your story and perhaps engage with your followers.
This information can also be very useful. If you’re using Instagram to gain visibility for your business, stories can help you stay in touch with your followers. Knowing who saw what will help you understand how that will happen.
What about videos sent in Direct Messaging?
Since group chats are popular on Instagram, sending videos via Direct Messaging (DM) is quite useful. However, “Do you know if your recipient has seen the video you sent them?” you may ask.
Answer Yes! When someone watches your video during a conversation, Instagram marks the video with an eye-shaped icon. You can also see the name of the person viewing it. This is helpful because group chats are popular on Instagram.
What if you send a disappearing DM?
Disappearing DMs are like stories. Your recipient can only view a lost DM a limited number of times before it becomes inactive. These messages are always sent in video format, even if your message itself is actually an image or text.
As with permanent DMs, Instagram shows you who viewed your disappearing video.
Why Are Video Views Important?
When Instagram first rolled out video views in 2016, their blog said, “Views are the most anticipated form of video feedback.” This is an accurate assessment and reflects the mindset of many Instagram users. Having a high video view count is one of the best indicators that you are famous on Instagram.
There is another benefit to having a high view count on your stories. When you tap “Viewed by” on your story, you can see the full list of people who viewed your video. So in what order are the names listed? If your view count is low, people who saw your video are listed chronologically.
However, as the number of views increases, the ranking will change. People who interact more with your profile will rank higher.
This can be a good way to do a quick analysis of your followers. However, the most important function of video view counts is to tell you which videos people like the most or when is the best time to post a video.
Getting More Information
There are ways to gather deeper information about your performance on Instagram. Here are a few free and paid alternatives to take a deeper dive into your performance.
Instagram Statistics
If you want to start collecting serious data from your Instagram account, you need to convert it to a business account. Having an Instagram business account is both simple and free. A business account gives you a wider range of tools to promote your business, including Instagram Insights. Here’s how to convert it to a business profile.
Instagram Insights gives you per-post metrics like views (how many times your video is viewed), reach (how many unique accounts watched your video), and follows (how many people started following you after seeing a particular video). .
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Iconosquare is a paid analytics program that starts with a 14-day free trial. After the trial period, a Pro account lets you analyze three different Instagram accounts for $29 per month. Higher service levels, of course, cost more. You get a lot for your money: advanced analytics including engagement insights, reach and impressions, video views, follower age, gender and language data, analytics based on stories, Mentions and Tags analytics, in-depth post analytics, and much more.
Unity Metrics Instagram Check
Union Metrics offers a wide variety of paid analytics services, but it does have a free tool that is very useful for an aspiring Instagram professional like you. Instagram Checkups is a free account check that looks at the last 30 days of activity on your account to tell you the best times to post photos and videos to get responses from your audience, the types of posts that will boost you. Your engagement level, which posts resonate the most with your followers and which hashtags will drive more engagement to your account.
Apps to See Who Viewed My Instagram Profile
As we discussed above, it is impossible to tell who watched your Instagram videos unless you publish them as stories. However, some people may really want to know who is following their Instagram profile. While you can’t do this in-app, there are some Android apps you can download on Google Play that let you keep track of who views you on Instagram. Here are some of the most popular and free apps to find out who viewed your Instagram account:
- Follower Insight for Instagram – With this app you can follow followers who follow you, unfollow and block you on Instagram. It sends you notifications for these activities.
- Follower Analyzer for Instagram – This app has a simplified user interface that lets you know who viewed your Instagram photos.
- FollowMeter for Instagram – This app tracks who follows and unfollows you on Instagram. With this application, you can also control who viewed your profile and who liked your posts.
- SocialPlus – This app makes you aware of who has viewed your Instagram photos and stories, as well as who has blocked and unfollowed you.
Since these are third-party apps, we strongly recommend that you read the reviews before downloading the app and granting access to your Instagram account.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I see who viewed my Instagram Posts?
No. Instagram doesn’t tell you who viewed your Instagram posts. The only way to know is if someone has interacted with them, such as likes or comments. If you have a professional account, you will see how many people have seen your posts, but now especially who.
If you’re concerned about privacy, consider switching your account to Private. This means that only your followers can see what you upload to the platform.
Can I know if someone has seen my Instagram profile?
Again, that’s another no. Most social media platforms do not offer this option because people should feel safe exploring each other’s profiles without being noticed. This increases interaction and follows.
There were rumors once, years ago, that you said who viewed your profile more often, in order of followers in your friends list. Today, this is an unfounded claim. There are also websites and apps that promise to tell you who viewed your profile. Again, this is unfounded as we have yet to find anyone who does this legally.
Of course, you can make your account private if you don’t want everyone in the world to know what you’re doing. If someone is viewing your account often, it’s because they like your content, but if you’re concerned about your privacy, make your account private.
Last word
Here is a brief summary of the events by the audience. You can watch another person’s video post without your name being recorded anywhere. All you have to do is add it to the video views. Your name will be recorded while watching a story instead of a video. There are third-party apps that promise to let you watch Instagram stories anonymously. You can also try some tricks like turning off WiFi before watching the story. But if staying anonymous is important to you, it’s safest to stick with posts rather than stories.
