Can You See Who Viewed Your Instagram Video? Here's How You Can Check

Instagram has made it increasingly easy to see who's keeping up with your life adventures, and for you to do the same. While you can see if your crush has been watching your Instagram Stories simply by tapping a button, it's a little harder to track when it comes to the posts and videos you share on your Instagram feed. When you post a fire Reel, you might be wondering if you can see who viewed your Instagram video. While there’s not a surefire way to see everyone who viewed your Instagram video, there are some ways to check who is watching your content. Here’s how you can keep tabs on your views.

With Instagram becoming more video-focused with Reels, you’ll likely be sharing more and more of them to your feed. When it comes to who is checking out your content, it’s not immediately apparent. You’ll have to dig in a little to see who thinks your IG feed is must-see viewing. Thankfully, seeing who is viewing your videos might be a little easier if you employ your Instagram Story in tandem with your Reels. Here’s a rundown on all the places you can share video on Instagram — and how you can check who is keeping up with it all.

Who viewed your Instagram Story videos?

When Instagram rolled out its Story feature in 2016, it was a game-changer for the app. For the first time, Instagram users could see exactly who was viewing their content by checking out the viewing feature on their Instagram Story. Before that, the only way to tell your ex or your crush (or anyone else, really) was checking out your social media activity was if they followed you or actively liked your photos.

Instagram Story Likes

Another way to see who viewed the video you posted on your Story is by checking out Instagram’s Story Like. The feature gives users the ability to “like” another Story, and Story Likes are completely private, meaning only you can see who’s Liked your Story — and it also doesn’t count the number of Story Likes you get on a Story. Instead, you’ll see a viewer sheet for your post which features a heart emoji next to the users who gave you a Story Like.

Instagram Story Reactions

You can also quickly see if someone viewed a video you posted on your Story if they send an emoji reaction to your DMs. The quick reactions, which include the fire emoji and laughing-crying face, are fun ways to quickly let people know you’ve seen their content. When you’re the recipient of a quick reactions, you can just as easily get two-for-one info: confirmation they watched your video and what they thought about.

Who viewed Instagram videos (Reels) on your feed?

While the Story feature is now mainstream, checking to see who viewed your content works a little differently when it comes to Instagram's OG feed. When you post a video, which Instagram automatically turns into a Reel, on your feed, you’ll be notified about how many likes, plays, and comments you've gotten. This is the first place to go to see who viewed your video. If you’re looking for a specific viewer, check the likes. If their name is there, then they’ve probably seen your video. You can also see who’s viewed your Instagram video by going to the comments.

Checking for clandestine viewers is a little more difficult. The number of “plays” on your Reel is based on how many people watched your video, but it doesn’t count re-watches. You can find this number if you go to your Reels on your feed, and you’ll see play counts on each video of your grid. You can also go to your video, tap on the likes, and it’ll open up a stats page, listing anyone who has liked you video, with the total number of views at the top. To answer the big question — the identity behind the video views (save for likes) is still a mystery. In other words, you won't know whether your aunt, your crush, or your bestie were one of the 120 people who watched that video on your Instagram feed unless they physically "liked" it or commented on it.

Share your Instagram video to your Story

If you really want to see if someone in particular is viewing your Instagram videos, there’s one more trick you can try. You share the video itself to your Instagram Story, and then check the list of viewers there. To share your Reel to your Story, simply tap the airplane icon on your video, and choose “Add Reel to your Story.” From there, keep your eyes peeled on your Story viewers, and you might just see whatever name you’re looking for.

Unfortunately, you can’t see each and every person who viewed your Reel on your Instagram feed, but you can tap into a few places to check out where your content is going — and if you want even more data, try out a professional Instagram account. You’ll get dashboards and insights about engagement to see what people like about your account.

Of course, making videos is supposed to be fun, so don’t get too caught up in who is checking out your content.

Hiding your Instagram videos

Now, let’s talk about what happens when you don’t want someone to view your Instagram videos. While the only surefire way to prevent someone from looking at your Instagram profile is by blocking them, you can also hide a particular Instagram Story from them if you don't want them to see your day-to-day life. Once your Instagram Story, you can select the icon in the lower right-hand corner to go into your Story Settings. Once there, you can choose to "Hide Story” from certain people who follow your profile.

If you don’t want someone to view a photo or video you posted to your Instagram feed, however, it’s a little harder. Unfortunately there’s no easy way to hide just one post from someone. In order to hide your Reels, you’d have to block them if they’re following you, or make your Instagram private if they’re not already following you.

You’re probably spending plenty of time on Instagram as it is (guilty), so don’t get too focused on what the numbers say. With so many ways to get creative with Reels and Instagram Story, you’ll have plenty of chances to have fun making new videos that you might no even care who is watching. But when that urge hits to see if your crush checked it, you can try a few of these methods to see if they’ve got eyes on you.