How can you see who watched your instagram video

Instagram has made it increasingly easy to see who's keeping tabs on you, and for you to do the same. While you can see if your crush has been watching your Instagram Stories simply by tapping a button, though, it's a little harder to track when it comes to the posts or videos you share on your Instagram feed. Considering you can only see who "liked" your posts, you might be wondering if you can somehow see who viewed your Instagram videos. Here's how that all works.

When Instagram first rolled out its Story feature back in 2016, it was a game-changer for the app. For the first time, Instagram users could see exactly who was viewing their content by checking out the viewing feature on their Instagram Story. Before that, the only way to tell that your ex or your crush (or anyone else, really) was checking out your social media activity was if they followed you or actively liked your photos.

While the Story feature has now become mainstream, checking to see who viewed your content works a little differently when it comes to Instagram's OG features like photo and video posts. When you post a video on your feed, you will be notified about how many "likes" and "views" you've gotten. The number of “views” is based on how many people watched your video for at least three seconds, but it doesn’t count re-watches. And to answer the big question — the identity behind the video views is still a mystery. In other words, you won't know whether your aunt, your crush, or your bestie were one of the 120 people who watched that video on your Instagram feed unless they physically "liked" it or commented on it.

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The only other way that you'll be able to see if someone saw your video is if you re-post the video itself to your Instagram Story and then check the list of viewers there. (But don’t just share your feed post to your Story — if they “view” your Story then, you’re really only getting confirmation that they saw the still shot of the video from your feed when they checked your Story. You still don’t know if they clicked the post, got sent to your feed, and watched the video from there.)

Now, let’s talk about what happens when you don’t want someone to view your Instagram videos. While the only surefire way to prevent someone from looking at your Instagram profile is by blocking them, you can also hide a particular Instagram Story from them if you don't want them to see your day-to-day life. Once you create a snap for your Instagram Story, you can select the icon in the lower right hand corner to go into your Story Settings. Once there, you can choose to "Hide Story” from certain people who follow your profile.

If you don’t want someone to view a photo or video you posted to your Instagram feed, however, it’s a little harder. Unfortunately there’s no easy way to hide just one post from someone. In order to hide your posts, you’d have to block them if they’re following you or make your Instagram private if they’re not already following you.

Meanwhile, if you want to hide all your Story posts from someone, you can go to Privacy in your Settings. Under Interactions, you can tap “Story” to hide your Story from certain people or designate a group of people as your Close Friends. In addition, you can opt to allow only certain people to send you message replies (you can choose between allowing replies from everyone who follows you, only people you follow, or no replies at all) and control who can share your Story as messages to others.

So, there you have it. In the age of information overload, it's kind of a relief that social media users don't have one more detail to obsess over, especially if an ex or someone who ghosted you is still watching your Stories and looking at your feed.

This article was originally published on 04.20.19

Instagram has been the internet's favorite photo-sharing social media platform since its launch in 2010. More than 95 million photos are uploaded to Instagram every day, so maybe you're just a little curious as to whether you can see who views your Instagram posts, Story, or profile.

Here's what you should know about what you can track and how to see who viewed your Instagram posts…

Can You See Who Views Your Instagram?

Instagram is pretty lean on details about who views your profile and content. As such, it's not surprising that questions like, “can you see who viewed your Instagram post?” are quite popular.

To some extent, it's possible to see who viewed your Instagram photos and videos—but this only really applies to Stories. Unfortunately, the app doesn't have this same function for regular photo and video posts. As such, you can't see who views your Instagram photos or videos posted in your feed unless they've liked it or left a comment.

However, you can see how many views a video post has.

If you own a business account on Instagram, you can also see the number of visitors you had in the past few weeks or how many users saw your content in their feed. But you cannot view the list of usernames.

Regular posts are limited to information on who liked your photo and commented on the post.

How to See Who Viewed Your Instagram Story

So now that you know that you can see who views your Instagram Story during the day, how can you access this information in the app?

You just need to follow these steps:

  1. Open your Story by tapping Your Story at the top left.
  2. Swipe up on the screen. You'll see the number of people and account usernames of those who have viewed each photo or video in your Story. Only you are able to see this information.

If your Story has expired (it's been more than 24 hours since you posted it), you can check who has seen it up to 48 hours after it went up.

To do this, go to your profile. Then follow these steps:

  1. Tap the icon with three horizontal lines in the top right.
  2. Tap Archive.
  3. If you aren't already on the Stories Archive page, tap the title at the top of the screen to open the dropdown menu.
  4. Select Stories Archive.
  5. Tap the Story you want to check, and either swipe up on the screen or tap the icon at the bottom left.

The number of Story views includes replays. You may see a higher number of views than usernames if the same account has viewed your Story more than once.

If you're trying to get more eyeson your content, there are some things you can try to get more views on your Instagram Stories.

How to See How Many Views Your Instagram Video Has

You can check how many views your Instagram videos have, making them different from regular photo posts, which only show likes. However, if you want, you can hide the number of likes on your Instagram posts.

To check how many people have viewed your Instagram video, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to your Instagram profile and tap on the video you want to check.
  2. Underneath the video, you'll see that your video has been a given number of views. Tap the [X] views option to see the total views and likes.
  3. The first number on the following screen is how many views your video has. The second number is how many likes your video has.

You cannot see all the viewers' usernames individually, but you can scroll through the list to see the usernames of everyone who liked the video. If you're searching for someone specific, you can use the search bar at the top.

The views total is only available for videos. For photos, the details pane will only show the list of users who liked it.

You'll also see a View Insights button beneath your posts if you have a professional Instagram account. For videos, instead of tapping [X] views, select View Insights to view more detailed information about your video.

On top of the total number of likes, views, and comments, you'll also see the number of shares and saves. Instagram also displays the number of accounts reached by the post and the impact it had on your profile in terms of visits and new follows.

Are There Any Third-Party Apps That Let You See Who Viewed Your Instagram Profile?

When your favorite apps don't have the function you wish they had built-in, what do you do? Some folks might go on a quick search for an alternative in the form of third-party apps. Don't be fooled by any applications that make this claim.

In an article in Reader's Digest, Alex Heid of SecurityScorecard notes: “Anything advertising a feature that shows who viewed your profile would not be a legitimate service and should be avoided as it is likely just an app that is there to collect data for those who use it.”

Instagram was acquired by Facebook in 2016, so it makes sense that there is some overlap between them. They have similar privacy settings, and you can't see who has viewed your Facebook profile, either.

Instagram Lets You See Some Details on Who Viewed Your Content

Maybe Instagram will consider adding something in the future to allow users to see who has viewed their photos. But in the meantime, the most you can do is keep an eye on who keeps tabs on your Stories and how well the videos on your feed do.