Can You See Who Viewed Your Video on Instagram?

Social media wouldn’t be social if we weren’t able to interact with other users. It’s nice to be able to see who liked your content and who’s keeping tabs on you. But is there a way to see who’s viewed your Instagram videos?

There’s no way to see the Instagram handles of people who have viewed most of your videos. Ordinary posts and reels don’t share this information. However, videos that are posted on your Instagram Story will show who has viewed them. The downside is that Story videos disappear after 24 hours, so you only get insight into a short time window.

How Do Instagram Views Work?

To begin with, let’s start with the basics. With one exception, which we’ll discuss momentarily, you can’t see who viewed one of your posts. So, how does the process work to begin with?

Posting an Instagram video is straightforward. You can either upload a pre-recorded video, or open the Instagram app and record from within it.

When the video is uploaded, you can edit it, apply filters, and create captions. Then you share the video either as a Post, a Reel, or part of your Instagram Story. With the exception of your Instagram Story, your videos will remain permanently on your profile unless you manually delete them.

When you post a video, other people will be able to view it, like it, or comment on it. You’ll see the number of likes, the number of views, and any comments people have left. But in most cases you won’t be able to see who viewed the video. This is still better than image posts, which don’t even display a view total.

The view counter will only be visible on posts with a single video, not multiple-video posts. It also only counts the number of viewers, not views.

So if one person watches your video several times, it only counts as a single view. Knowing this information can be useful if you’re trying to increase engagement. If a video gets an unusual number of views, that’s a good sign that it’s the kind of content your followers enjoy.

How to Check Views on an Instagram Post

As we said, you can’t actually see who viewed your Instagram video posts. But you can still find some useful information by following these steps:

1. Log into the Instagram app and tap on your profile picture at the bottom of the screen.
2. Scroll down to your video and tap on it to open that individual post.

Under the video, you’ll see your view total, as well as the number of likes. Click on that number, and you’ll see users who liked the video. You can presume that those people have probably watched your video. But if someone watched your video and didn’t click “Like,” you’ll never know they watched it.

How to Check Views on an Instagram Reel

Your Instagram Reel works a little bit differently. Instead of tracking views, it tracks “plays,” which are basically the same thing. To view your number of plays, follow the same steps you’d follow to check data on a Post. Navigate to it, and you’ll see the Reel’s vital data at the bottom of the screen.

Here, you’ll have even more limited information than you would with Posts. You can see the number of people who liked your post, but not their identities. You can also see the total number of plays. There’s just no way to see the names of people who viewed your Reel.

How to Check Views on an Instagram Story

Unlike Posts and Reels, your Instagram Story is only a temporary record. Videos, pictures, or text posted to your wall will be visible for 24 hours, and will automatically disappear thereafter. Story posts have a sense of urgency to them. People want to click them immediately, because they know they’re going away.

The neat thing about your Story is that you can actually see the identities of people who viewed your videos. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open the Instagram app on your phone and log into your account.
2. Click at the top of the screen where it says “Your Story.”
3. Tap the “Activity” button at the bottom of you’re the video you want to check.
4. You’ll see a popup window that shows your total number of views, among other information.

Tap the number of views and you’ll see a list of all the people who have viewed your video. This function will work on Instagram versions 7.17.1 and later on Android and iOS. If you’re not seeing a list of people, try updating your app.

As you scroll through the list of viewers, don’t be surprised if there are strangers watching your videos. Unless your account is set to Private, anyone with an account will be able to view them. As for how viewers are sorted, that’s a whole different can of worms. We’ve written a whole article on how Instagram sorts story viewers.

How to Check Video Views in Instagram Direct Messages?

If you’re like many Instagram users, you probably spend a lot of time in Direct Messages (DMs). With a DM, you don’t have to worry about strangers watching your video, because it’s a private message. That said, you might want to know when your friends have actually watched your videos.

Thankfully, this is easy to see. When someone in your DMs watches a video, an eyeball icon will show up by the video. You’ll also see the name of the person who viewed it. If you’re in a group conversation, you can tap the eyeball to see who watched the video.
Disappearing DMs will work the same way. However, you can only see who viewed the video for as long as the DM is active. When it disappears, so does any record of who viewed it.

Can I See Who Viewed My Instagram Profile?

Unfortunately, there’s no way to see who has viewed your Instagram profile. As far as we’re aware, you won’t find this feature on any social media platform whatsoever. If you posted something in public, it’s best just to assume that everyone has seen it.

The reason people think this is that you used to be able to tell who viewed your profile most often. Instagram would sort your friends list based on your most frequent viewers. But that’s no longer the case. Nowadays, there’s no way to see who has viewed your profile.

If you want to limit who sees your posts, you can set your account to private. That way, only people who follow your account will be able to view it. And once your account is private, people won’t be able to follow you without your approval. You might want to see who follows you on Instagram when you make your account private.

Why Are Instagram Video Views Important?

Instagram video views are important because you want to know how – and how many – people engage with your content. Think about it this way; there are over 1.5 billion active Instagram users. That’s an incredible number, and it’s growing by the day. Now imagine you could capture even a tiny slice of that pie. Even if your content is very niche, you’re looking at an enormous potential audience.

But if you want to know what people like, you need to look at your metrics. For example, let’s say a video gets twice as many views as your typical content. That’s a clue that you might want to post more similar content.

Of course, this only matters if you’re an influencer or you’re promoting a product or brand. If you’re just a regular person, your views don’t matter. Post what you like, and let your profile and Story reflect your personality!

I Found an App That Says it Can Show me Who Viewed my Videos – Does it Work?

There are a number of apps out there claiming to be able to show who viewed your videos. Using these apps is a terrible idea for a couple of reasons. To begin with, a functional app would have to interface with Twitter’s servers via a custom API. That would be a violation of Twitter’s terms of service, and could get your account banned.

That’s assuming the app even works. More often than not, you’ll find that it does nothing more than harvest your data. In the worst case scenario, scammers could take over your Instagram account and use it for their purposes. In other words, just steer clear of these apps.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to seeing who viewed your videos, Instagram is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, you can only see that information on your Story, not on Reels or Posts. On the other hand, most social media platforms won’t even show you that much. On YouTube, the premier video platform, you can’t even see who liked your videos. All in all, Instagram offers quality metrics compared to many alternatives.