TechJunkie is a BOX20 Media Company

Home Social Media Instagram Does Instagram Show Who Viewed Your Video?

Does Instagram Show Who Viewed Your Video?

Does Instagram Show Who Viewed Your Video?

Instagram is a popular place to upload videos. It allows you to add great filters and cute stickers for more fun and appeal.

If you’re uploading a lot of videos to Instagram, then you probably want to know who is watching your videos! There are a couple of different reasons you might want this information. First, you might just want to know who is interacting with your posts for personal reasons. That lets you know which of your friends and followers are actually paying attention to what you post.

The second reason pertains to those who are promoting their businesses on Instagram. If that’s you, then of course you would want to collect as much information as possible on who is checking out your videos. This allows you to work more on getting more engagements and reactions to your posts.

In this article, I’m going to show you how to find out who is viewing your videos, how many people have seen it and teach you some of the inner workings of Instagram’s video viewership metrics.

Instagram Doesn’t Show You Who Viewed Your Video Posts

First, the bad news: Instagram doesn’t show you who viewed a video post. Although you can’t see who viewed your video post, there is a way to find out, and we’ll get to that. First, let’s talk about how the Instagram video posting process works.

Posting a video to Instagram is simple. You record an event, or you upload an existing recording from your gallery. You trim, 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 make a decision to remove them. If your account is set to private, then your posts are only visible to your followers. If you have a public account, anyone can view them.

You won’t find out WHO viewed your video post, but you will see HOW MANY viewed it. (Note that this is only for videos. For image posts, you get no information at all.)

Hey, 1 view is better than 0 views…

The view number doesn’t go up if one person watches the video several times in a row. It’s also very important to note that the view counter doesn’t apply if the post contains multiple videos. Knowing the number of views your video post has received is valuable information, as it can give you an idea of what interests people, especially your followers. While this is less informative than comments and likes, it can help you plan out more successful Instagram strategies to boost your following or your business success.

But what if you want to share a video and know exactly who has viewed it? Here’s the secret: you can do that 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 Instagram’s top features. As with a post, you can record 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 in your Instagram profile, you can save them as Highlights. Stories Highlights allows you to archive your stories in your profile, instead of them disappearing after 24 hours.

So what happens if someone watches your story? Instagram tells you exactly who viewed your video. To get to this information, follow these steps:

Select the Story

Find the story that you are interested in. On the bottom of your screen, you’ll see the number of people who viewed your story. After your story disappears, so will this information, so don’t plan on going back and getting a week’s worth of viewership information at a time. You’ll have to keep up with this data pretty much every day if you’re serious about collecting it.

Select “Seen by”

Tap on the “Seen by” text or the profile photo above it. This will take you to a list of people who have viewed your story so far. In addition to the name of the person who has viewed your video, this screen shows you the view counts on your active stories. Note that someone who views your story can also react or respond to it. This is another great way to garner information on your story’s impact and perhaps interact with your followers.

This information can be very useful too. If you’re using Instagram to gain visibility for your business, stories can help you keep in touch with your followers. Knowing who viewed what will help you figure out how to make that happen.

What about videos sent in Direct Messaging?

As group conversations are popular on Instagram, sending videos via Direct Messaging (DM) is pretty useful. But you might ask, “Will you know whether your recipient has viewed the video you sent to them?”

The answer is YES! When someone watches your video in a conversation, Instagram marks the video with an eye-shaped icon. You can also see the name of the person who has viewed it. This is useful because group conversations are popular on Instagram.

What if you send a disappearing DM?

Disappearing DMs are similar to stories. Your recipient can only view a disappearing DM for a limited number of times before it turns inactive. These messages are always sent in video form, even if your message itself is actually an image or a text.

Exactly like in the case of permanent DMs, Instagram shows you who has viewed your disappearing video.

Why Are Video Views Important?

When Instagram first introduced video views in 2016, their blog stated that “Views are the most widely expected form of feedback on the video.” This is an accurate assessment and it reflects the mindset of many Instagram users. Having a high video view count is one of the best indicators that you’ve become Instagram-famous.

There’s another benefit to having a high view count on your stories. When you tap on “Seen by” on your story, you can see the full list of people who have viewed your video. So in what order are the names listed? If your view count is low, the people who’ve seen your video are listed chronologically.

However, when the view count grows, the order will change. The 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 best or when is the best time to post a video.

Getting More Information

There are ways to collect deeper information about your performance on Instagram. Here are a few free and paid alternatives to do a deeper dive into your performance.

Instagram Insights

If you want to start collecting serious data from your Instagram account, you need to make it into a business account. Having an Instagram business account is both simple and free. A business account gives you a wider range of tools that are tailored to promoting your business, including Instagram Insights. You can learn how to convert to a business profile here.

Instagram Insights gives you per-post metrics such as view count (how many times your video has been viewed), reach (how many unique accounts have viewed your video), and follows (how many people started following you after seeing a particular video).

Iconosquare

Iconosquare is a paid analytics program that starts out with a free 14-day trial. After the trial period, a Pro account will let you do analytics on three different Instagram accounts for $29 a month. Higher levels of service, of course, cost more. For your money, you get quite a bit: advanced analytics including engagement insights, reach and impressions, video views, follower age, gender and language data, stories-based analytics, Mentions and Tags analytics, detailed post analytics, and a lot more.

Union Metrics Instagram Checkup

Union Metrics offers a wide range of paid analytics services, but they have a free tool that’s super useful for an up-and-coming Instagram pro like yourself. Their Instagram Checkup is a free account checkup that looks at the last 30 days of activity on your account to give you information on the best times to post photos and videos in order to get a response from your audience, the kinds of posts that would boost your level of engagement, which posts are resonating the most with your followers, and what hashtags will bring more attention to your account.

Apps to See Who Viewed My Instagram Profile

As we discussed above, it is not possible to tell who views your Instagram videos, unless you post them as stories. However, some people might really want to know who has been stalking their Instagram profile. Although you cannot do this in-app, there are some Android apps you can download on Google play that allows you to track who’s been viewing checking you out on Instagram. Some of the most popular and free apps to find out who views your Instagram account are:

  • Follower Insight for Instagram – With this app, you can track stalkers who follow, 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 allows you to know who viewed your Instagram photos.
  • FollowMeter for Instagram – This app tracks who follows and unfollows you on Instagram. With this app, you can also check who viewed your profile and who liked your posts.
  • SocialPlus – This app makes you aware of who views your Instagram photos and stories, as well as those who blocked and unfollowed you.

Since these are third-party applications we highly recommend reading through the reviews before downloading and granting the app permission to access your Instagram account.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I see who viewed my Instagram Posts?

No. Instagram does not tell you who viewed your Instagram posts. The only way you’ll know is if someone interacts with them such as a like or a comment. If you have a professional account you’ll get to see how many people saw your posts but now specifically who.

If you have privacy concerns, consider switching your account to Private. This means only those who follow you can see what you upload to the platform.

Can I tell if someone views my Instagram profile?

Again, that’s another no. Most social media platforms don’t provide this option because people should feel confident to explore one another’s profiles without detection. This increases engagement and follows.

At one time, years ago, there were rumors that you tell who viewed your profile more frequently based on the order of followers in your friends’ list. Today, that’s an unfounded claim. There are also websites and apps that promise to tell you who is viewing your profile. Again, this is unfounded as we have yet to find one that legitimately does that.

You can make your account private of course, if you don’t want everyone in the world to know what you’re up to. If someone is viewing your account frequently, it’s likely because they enjoy your content, but if you’re concerned about your privacy, make your account private.

A Final Word

Here’s a quick recap from the viewer’s side of things. You can watch another person’s video post without your name getting recorded anywhere. All you will do is add to their video view count. When you’re watching a story instead of a video, your name will get recorded. There are third-party apps that promise to let you watch Instagram stories anonymously. You can also try certain tricks, like turning off WiFi before you watch the story. But if staying anonymous is important to you, it is safest to stick to posts instead of stories.

Verizon ‘Error 31: Other Network Problem’ - Quick Fix

Read Next 

One thought on “Does Instagram Show Who Viewed Your Video?”

Michele Finnerty says:
Can you find out who viewed your photos along with a video on your feed? I know you can find out who viewed your “Stories”, but what about if you posts photos and a video can you get a name who’s seen it? Thank you!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Robert Hayes

Jan 24, 2021

Robert is a freelance editor and writer living in Colorado.

132 Articles Published

More