Have you ever wondered who actually views those stories that you add to your Instagram account? And can you tell if someone has viewed it more than once? Well, no need to wonder, because we are going to answer all those questions and more.
What is Instagram Story?
Instagram lets you add content that disappears after 24 hours. This is separate from your posts that are visible on your profile. You can adjust the privacy on your account to customize who can view these disappearing stories. Instagram also added a feature (Private Stories) that lets you create a custom audience for your stories.
You can also repost content to your story so that others can easily find it. Tapping on a repost will take you to the original content. If you want your story to last longer than the 24-hour limit, you can save it to your ‘Highlights’. Your saved story will then be available on your profile.
How to see who viewed your Story on Instagram
Instagram lets you see who has viewed your story on the app. It also lets you know the order in which your story was viewed. That way you can probably guess who has your story notifications on.
To see who has viewed your story on Instagram, launch the app, and tap on your story in the top left corner.
At the bottom of the story, you should see a ‘Seen by’ button with display pictures over it. This means that your story has been viewed. Next to ‘Seen by’ is a number that represents the number of people that have viewed your story i.e. Seen by 100 people
Tap on the ‘Seen by’ button to bring up a list of people that have viewed your story.
Alternatively, you could simply swipe up on the story.
Can you see how many times someone views your story on Instagram?
While you can see who has viewed your story, there is no way to tell if a person has viewed your story more than once. The list generated is based on who viewed your story at what point. It does not repopulate if the user viewed your story again at a later stage.
Each time a new user views your story, they are added to the top of the list. However, if a person who has already viewed your story before watches it again, their name will not rise to the top of the list. That means you cannot tell if a person has viewed your story once or a hundred times.
Can you tell if someone screenshots your story?
No, Instagram does not notify you if a user takes a screenshot of your story. While some apps like Snapchat immediately notify the user when someone screenshots their story, there is no way to tell the same on Instagram.
In fact, even if a user shares your story with someone, you will not be notified.
How to know if someone screenshots your DM pic
A new update to the app now notifies you when a user takes a screenshot of your DM photo. To be clear, the only time you will get a notification is if you send a direct photo (taken from your camera) to a person and they screenshot it. The same does not hold true for posts, DM messages, or sent stories.
When a person screenshots your DM photo, it will bring that conversation to the top of the list. It will also say ‘Screenshot’ in your DM list.
Additionally, you can check if a person has screenshot your DM photo by opening the chat. A screenshot symbol will be visible beside the photo that you sent.
What about Snapchat?
So, does Snapchat tell you how many times your Snapchat story is viewed?
In this aspect, Snapchat follows the same rule as Instagram. The app does not let you see if a user has viewed your story more than once. Until a recent update, there was a trick to figure out if someone viewed your Story again (because their name would jump to the top of the viewer’s list). However, a recent update has now gotten rid of that feature.
The viewers list now simply populates based on the order in which the story was viewed. So even if a person views your story again, their name will not move to the top of the list.
Do any Social Media apps tell you how many times your Story is viewed by a user?
At this moment, none of the popular social media apps allow this. It seems like they all follow the same ideology of not wanting users to know that someone has viewed their story multiple times.
Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Snapchat all let you see who has viewed your story but do not let you know if a person has viewed it again. In fact, their viewer lists all populate in quite the same way. Once a person has viewed your story, their name will not move to the top if they view it again.
So at this time, there is no way for you to find out who viewed your Instagram story more than once. Do you think Instagram should add this feature? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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