Instagrammers, rejoice! A new feature is about to be added to the already much loved app. Soon, you'll be able to see Instagram video view counts on both videos you upload and videos that appear on your feed. Instagram introduced their video feature about two years ago, and it's been a big hit in terms of user popularity; as such, it was really only a matter of time before something akin to the "like" button arrived for video posts. As Instagram explains on their blog, "Views are the most widely expected form of feedback on video," so clearly it's something users of the app have been clamoring for. We don't know exactly when the new feature will arrive — the most specific information we have right now is "over the next few weeks" — but so far, the process sounds extremely intuitive: You'll be able to view the number of views slimply by clicking or tapping the word "views."
Notably, regular Instagrammers are still limited to sharing 30 second videos. On the other hand, advertisers can now increase their videos from 30 to 60 seconds per post. But even with the increase in time, it's possible the number of "views" being available for entities that aren't paid advertisers will make the biggest impact. As Patrick Kulp over at Mashable points out, the visibility of the view counts for all users is actually pretty significant: Notes Kulp, "Paying advertisers have always been able to see their video counts, but for other brands on the platform, the only measurement of how much traction a video was getting before now came from its likes and comments." Now, there's a whole new measurement to consider that will hopefully paint a more accurate picture of a video's reach.
Instagram's blog hints that the video view count is just "the first of many ways you’ll see video on Instagram get better this year," leading me to hope that we'll have even more cool features to check out as the year progresses. This means it's time to celebrate, because now you'll finally know exactly how many people see those funny videos you post of your dog — and what's more exciting than that?
