Instagram Stories Won't Give You This Information

If you have some free time and are fighting the urge to check out your crush's Instagram page again, you might wonder how many times they've viewed your Instagram Story. Whether you use the ‘gram to spy on your crushes or want to see if someone's crushing on you, knowing whether they're keeping up with your Story is crucial. Though you could see how many times a normal Instagram video post was viewed, it wasn't always possible with the newer Snapchat-esque Stories feature. But now that Instagram lets you see exactly who's watched your Story, all that's changing.

Instagram Stories, which were launched in early August 2016, have become an excellent tool for sharing bite-size slideshows of day-to-day life. Unlike the arty, heavily-filtered highlights that are typical of an Instafeed, the Stories feature allows users to post everyday moments in a low-pressure, relaxed format. Each photo or video slideshow appears as a circle at the top of the normal feed, where followers can choose to click and view it. Stories themselves only last for a 24-hour period, with the ephemeral nature helping to protect users from feeling like they are oversharing with their followers. They're essentially a separate environment for some more relaxed content — just the kind of thing a crush would want to scope out, amirite?

As you can imagine, there's a big difference between checking out all the Stories as they cycle through and watching one particular Story over and over like a dearly departed Vine. Though you can see who has checked out your latest Story, sadly, there is currently no way to see how many times an individual person has viewed it.

Sorry about that, gang. Or maybe not, depending on whether you're relieved that no one will know you just watched a slideshow of a random Instagram user's dog five times in a row. If you visit Instagram's Help Center, however, you'll learn how to find out who's watched your Story — just not how many times they've watched it.

To see who has ogled at your latest Story, according to the Help Center, simply tap on your Story and swipe up on the screen. A list of names of the people who have seen each photo or video in your story, as well as a view counter, signified by a number next to an eyeball graphic, will appear. Instead of swiping up on the screen, you can also open your story and click on the bottom left corner, where it says "seen by." That'll take you to the same list of viewers.

So, while Instagram protects each video viewer's privacy, it also shields the poster. Only the person who posted the story can see these analytics, so you don't have to be worried that others can see how popular your content is, or bashful when it comes to checking out your story stats.

And if you really want to impress people with your Story (or get your crush's attention), Instagram lets you add music now thanks to a new feature that was released in June 2018. Even better, you can choose which part of the song to include in your clip. "When you tap to add a sticker to a photo or video in Stories, you’ll now see a music icon. Tap on it to open a library of thousands of songs — you can search for a specific song, browse by mood, genre or what’s popular and tap the play button to hear a preview," Instagram explains on its press site. "When you’ve selected your song, you can fast-forward and rewind through the track to choose the exact part that fits your story." Whether you want to show off a favorite song or put a soundtrack to your next adventure, the social media platform makes it pretty easy.

And though you can't see how many times someone has viewed your Story, knowing exactly who's interested enough to click on it is the next best thing.

This post was originally published on Dec. 2, 2016. It was updated on Aug. 9, 2019.