It has been almost three years since Instagram introduced videos to the platform. But, unlike almost all other forms of social media that offer video capabilities, Instagram still does not offer view counts. YouTube, Facebook, and Vine all offer users the chance to see how many times their videos have been viewed, but Instagram does not. But this all might be changing in the near future.
Soon, Instagram will allow brands to not only see who has liked and commented on their video but also who has viewed it. Instagram will be introducing view counter for anyone who has viewed a video for longer than 3 seconds, similar to Facebook. This change is said to take place over the coming weeks and will appear next to the comment and like counts.
There are many benefits to this new Instagram feature. Brands will now be able to see how far their videos are reaching, and compare their content to see which is most popular. This new feature will also benefit advertisers as they will be able to directly tell which videos are getting views, making the platform even more appealing in terms of advertisement opportunities.
Instagram also discusses that adding view count to their videos may not be the only change we see from them this year, saying, “Adding view counts is the first of many ways you’ll see video on Instagram get better this year.” We will have to wait and see Instagram’s next move.