Ok, we’re just going to spill the tea, because we want to make sure your stalking efforts aren’t wasted. The real mystery lies in the order of Story views. Have you noticed Instagram listing your Story views in any particular order? Let us know in the comment section below. Lots of people look at the list of who viewed their story as a popularity thing and getting to the bottom of the algorithm could answer a lot of questions that regular people using Instagram have, such as one of the age-old, million-dollar questions, “is my ex still into me?!”. Like, really, really ravenous, and it’s easy to see when. The only thing we can say for certain is that people are hungry for this knowledge. Maybe the viewers are listed in chronological order up until the first 50 views, and then maybe then it switches to the most engaged viewers, even if “engaged” simply means those who have lurked on your profile the most. It’s understandable when businesses and influencers rely on Instagram engagement analytics and metrics to understand how they can better build relationships with those people engaging with them, but what about for the average Instagram user? Does it really matter?Įspecially when we might never know for sure what little tricks Instagram has up its sleeve for this. Perhaps the bigger question in all of this is why people are so obsessed with knowing why their Story viewers appear in the order they do.ĭoes it really matter whether it shows your Aunt Doreen as number one or your high-school ex? “The Instagram algorithm recognizes who you are regularly interacting with and will then place them at the top of your Instagram Stories viewers list, because it knows those are the accounts you care about (or stalk), the most,” said Julian Gutman, product lead for Instagram home.Ī little disappointing for some of our hardcore Insta-Stalkers, we know, but fear not – there’s always hope that they’re stories show you in the top rankings of their views. The people you see appearing at the top of the viewers list are based on your engagement data taken from Instagram and Facebook. It started out in a chronological sequence from when you posted the story to your feed to how it appears on other users feeds throughout the day.Īpparently, now it’s based on who the user engages with the most. Initially, the social platform placed a huge emphasis on showing the people the users wanted to see. It’s actually quite simple after reading Our Stupid Simple Guide to the Instagram Algorithm. The answer is yes, but not exactly in the way you may think. So, let’s get to the big question on everyone’s minds – how does Instagram rank the order of the viewers of your story? Is there an actual algorithm behind the Insta-Story stalking we shamelessly love to do? We put content on social and give a glimpse into our lives for the intention to have some sort of impact, so it shouldn’t be surprising that some users really want to know whether the content they posted actually had an impact and whether there’s a method behind the story-views madness.

It’s in our nature to feel noticed and appreciated (and when your crush notices, that doesn’t hurt either).

We know we shouldn’t care or be obsessed with these trivial sorts of things – but we actually do. You’re starting to notice the order of people appearing and wondering if it actually means something. Yes, this shows that you’re hooked on Insta-Stories but also, you’re starting to be strategically intentional about how you post things. Frustrated, you post another story, and what do you know – they’re at the top again. You decide to post another story to see if they appear at the top, but this time, they’ve dropped down a few. A few moments later, you check the story “views” list and noticed your crush is seen at the top. Ok, just picture this – you decide to post a story showing the gorgeous view you happened across on your walk. People begin to use the Insta-Story viewer “whose seen your story” feature as method of measurement. That’s nearly the population of the entire United States, can you believe it?Īs you can see, Insta-Stories has taken off and has earned its rightful place as your-go-to tool for engagement into someone else’s and the account user. Since its launch in late 2016, the Insta-story feature actually overtook Snapchat in audience size and has grown to have over 300 million daily active users. Yes, we know you do it – we do it too – Instagram Story stalking that is.

Instagram story viewer list order