How does instagram list viewers of story

What Does The Order Of Instagram Story Viewers Mean?

Social Media

Here’s what we know.

by Emma Carey

Oct. 6, 2022

FG Trade Latin/E+/Getty Images

Whether you’re posting a deep, dark secret on your Close Friends story or a soft launch on your public story, there’s a good chance you’ve scrolled through your Instagram story viewers before. Maybe you want to see if your crush has seen your latest cute candid or want to see which random acquaintances from high school are still tapping through your memes or perhaps you’re just browsing out of sheer boredom. Whatever the reason for scrolling through your Instagram story viewers, you might be perplexed as to what determines the order of your story viewers.

The order of your Instagram story viewers can seem totally random. If you’re trying to use your story viewers to see how recently a specific someone viewed your story, you may want confirmation as to how the order of your story viewers is determined.

Here’s what the order of Instagram story viewers means.

According to Status Brew, Instagram story viewers are not listed chronologically. You may have already put this together if you checked on your story viewers early on, then checked back later to see your original viewers scattered throughout the list.

So, how are story viewers ordered? Well, as is the rhyme and reason for many social media mysteries, it seems to all come down to the Instagram algorithm. Instagram purposefully keeps its algorithms fairly shrouded in mystery. However, based on testing the story viewers' order for myself, there seem to be a few probable causes behind the order that viewers show up in.

Of course, Instagram seems to place those who have liked your story at the top of the list. So, you will likely see rows of usernames with red hearts next to them at the top to show who has liked your story.

As for the rest of the list, the algorithm seems to function similarly to the way in which stories show up at the top of your feed. Typically, the accounts that you engage with the most seem to be listed first in your story feed. It looks like this is somewhat the same for story viewers – meaning that the accounts you engage with the most show up towards the top. This engagement can be measured by accounts you like photos from often or DM the most. However, this doesn’t seem to always be the case, as a few random viewers likely make appearances toward the top of your list every once in a while.

The story viewer list also seems to place accounts that you don’t follow back toward the bottom. As for any kind of chronological view order, there is little evidence to show whether the order in which people view the story affects the order of your viewer list.

Overall, the order of Instagram story viewers seems to be left to mystery, but maybe that’s a blessing in disguise. Otherwise, you might spend a lot more time analyzing your story viewers than you need to.

How Does Instagram Sort Story Viewers in 2022?

Instagram is more than just a photo and video-sharing platform; it’s a social platform. You’re not just posting into the void. You’re engaging with other users and interacting with them. If you’re like most people, you want to see who’s been stalking your Instagram story. So you go to your story and click on the list of viewers. Suddenly, you’ll see a list that will probably include several familiar faces.

But how exactly does Instagram’s spooky algorithm decide how your story viewers are sorted? The short answer is that it’s super-secret. Instagram isn’t telling anyone, and for good reason. If someone knew Instagram’s algorithm inside and out, they could create a bot to exploit it. That said, we still have a general idea of how it works. Here’s everything you need to know about Instagram story viewers in 2022.

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What Are Instagram Stories?

Instagram first rolled out the story in 2016, and it’s become an incredibly popular feature. Every day, more than 500 million people update their Instagram story. That’s an insane number, and it goes to show just how much people love to post them. But even more people view stories than post them. In other words, any given story will likely have multiple viewers.

Since then, Meta has introduced the story feature on their two other platforms: Facebook and WhatsApp. Stories are pretty much the same on all three services, with similar features. Among those features is the ability to see who viewed your story. This makes stories different from posts, where you can’t see who viewed them. With a post, you’ll only see if someone liked, commented, or otherwise interacted with it.

When you look at who viewed your story, the list will be ordered in a certain way. How does that work?

Recency vs. Engagement

If you’re like most people, you probably assume your story viewers list is sorted chronologically. You’d see the most recent viewer at the top, followed by the second-most recent viewer, and so on. All the way at the bottom, you’d see the first person to view your story.

In fact, this reverse chronological order is exactly how it works, at least until you have over 50 viewers. But at that point, you’re already looking at a fairly long list that likely includes a bunch of strangers. If you were trying to find a particular person, it would be difficult to do so. Instead, Instagram switches things up once your story gets its 51st view.

At that point, the Instagram algorithm kicks in. Instagram is all about engagement, and they want to show you the people you’re most interested in. Furthermore, most people never scroll past the top few story viewers on the list. To drive engagement, Instagram will populate those spots with the people you’re most interested in.

How does Instagram know this? It’s a trade secret, and they’re not telling. But it seems to be related to how much you and the other person have interacted with each other. If someone is a stranger and has never interacted with you before, they’ll be near the bottom of the list.

Outside Interactions

Remember, Instagram doesn’t stand alone as a social media service. While it’s possible to have only an Instagram account, Instagram strongly encourages users to sign up for Facebook. Many Instagram users are also on WhatsApp, and all three of these companies are owned by Meta.

As a result, Instagram has access to your interactions on Facebook and WhatsApp. If you’re friends with somebody on one of those services, Instagram takes those interactions into account. Maybe you haven’t interacted with them much on Instagram. But if you’re constantly commenting on each-others’ Facebook accounts, they’ll show up higher in your story viewers list.

Once again, this is done with the intention of boosting engagement and connecting you with real friends. Instagram wants you to see the people you’re most interested in.

Along those lines, think twice if you can’t find someone you interact with a lot. They may not have seen your story because their account was temporarily or permanently deleted. See if you can find your most recent chat with them in your DMs. If their name has been changed to “Instagram User,” their account has probably been deleted.

Instagram Story View Order Myths

As we’ve discussed, your story viewers are sometimes ordered in reverse chronological order. But when you have more than 50 views, the order changes. This, combined with Instagram’s secrecy about their algorithm, has led to a number of myths. Here are two of the most common ones.

People at the top have viewed your story multiple times

This myth is all over the internet, and it makes intuitive sense. Someone views your story, then falls down the list as more people view it. That same person views your story again and comes back to the top. Unfortunately, this is completely false. Someone may rise higher if they’ve viewed your story a lot in the past. But that’s only one measure of engagement.

The people on top of the list are stalking you

Some people say that when someone views your story but doesn’t interact, they come to the top. That’s 100% false. If anything, they’d rise higher by liking or sharing, because that’s a form of engagement. But once again, these are just a couple measures of how often you engage.

If you’re trying to view someone else’s story and can’t find it, they may never have accepted your follow request. Or, maybe you forgot to request to follow them in the first place. If you’re not sure, check out our guide on how to see who you requested to follow on Instagram.

Do Instagram Story View Orders Matter?

It depends. If you’re an individual, story view order doesn’t really matter. It’s mostly a matter of personal interest and finding people who viewed your story. But we can’t think of a reason why story view order would be important for your personal life.

That said, you might be an influencer, or you might be running an Instagram account for your business. In those situations, story view order can be very important, but not in the way you might think. In point of fact, it doesn’t matter what order people viewed your story in. So keeping track of the first 50 views is pointless.

But once you exceed 50 views, things change. Remember what we said about driving engagement? Well, the people at the top of your views list will be the ones Instagram thinks are most likely to engage. Basically, you can look at those peoples profiles to get a profile for your most engaged followers.

Can an Instagram Bot Help?

Many people use bots called mass story viewers to view as many stories as possible. The idea is simple enough. By viewing a bunch of people’s stories, you show up in their viewers lists. This can expose you to people who otherwise never would have found your page. There are a couple of caveats to this.

To begin with, mass story viewing only really works for exposing yourself to smaller accounts. Remember, once a story gets 50 views, the algorithm kicks in. If someone hasn’t followed you, you’ll be way down at the bottom of their viewers list. It doesn’t matter how influential they are if they never see that they viewed your story. If you view stories from less well-followed pages, you may end up at the top.

Another issue is that mass story viewers may or may not work. They’re technically a type of bot, so you won’t get them from a reputable source. When you pay for one, you’re just trusting some random stranger that their software will work. If you must use a story viewer, do lots of research and find out what previous users are saying.

Finally, the use of bots is against Instagram’s terms of service. If you get caught using one, you can get a lifetime ban. Obviously you can create a new account with a new email address. But you’ll have to start over from square one with zero followers.

The Same Person Is Always at the Bottom of my Story Views – Why?

We’ve talked a lot about the people at the top of your story views. But what about the people at the bottom of the list? If the same person keeps appearing at the bottom, there’s a simple explanation. They follow you, but you don’t follow them. Since you don’t follow them, Instagram thinks you’re unlikely to engage, so they fall to the bottom.

If you’re not sure whether you follow that person or not, check your following and followers lists. If you’re not sure how those lists are ordered, read our complete guide to how the Instagram following and followers list is ordered.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, Instagram sorts your story viewers in two ways. When you have 50 views or fewer, they will be listed in reverse chronological order. When you have 51 or more, they will be listed according to Instagram’s secret algorithm. We hope we’ve given you a good explanation, and helped to dispel some myths.

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Understand Instagram view order and reap the benefits

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Instagram Stories is used to drive viewers to Instagram creator profiles. Engaging viewers with stories is great, but Instagram story view order is a handy tool as it reveals useful information about viewers... If you know how to interpret it.

What is the order of views on Instagram?

Instagram Stories view order refers to the list of people who have seen a particular story. The list gives creators an idea not only of the people who have recently viewed their stories, but also of those who are most likely to be interested in their content. Creators can see their list of Story views by swiping while playing stories.

Instagram uses story view order to help creators gauge each viewer's level of interest in their content. This helps the site effectively facilitate interactions between creators and their viewers. The only Instagram comment about how it works was:

“Like a ribbon, stories are ordered based on the moments you care most about. The order is determined based on a number of signals, including: 1) the likelihood that you will be interested in the content; 2) timeliness of publications; and 3) your relationship with the publisher. The technology is based on machine learning that adapts to your behavior and improves over time. Profile visits count as well as likes and comments.”

How Instagram Story View Order Works

To better understand how Instagram's view order algorithm works, some users on the Instagram Subreddit have experimented with the feature. These tests have shown that the site actually uses two different ordering schemes based on quantity views:

If no more than 50 people have viewed the story, the list of views is sorted in reverse chronological order.
As soon as the number of views exceeds 50, Instagram switches to a more complex sorting algorithm.
This more complex order organizes viewers based on their level of user interaction.

These two sorting systems, which are not officially endorsed by Instagram, work together to show the most relevant people at the top of the viewer list.

Understanding how viewer relevance is determined

Of the two sorting systems, users are more interested in the second one because it shows the levels of audience interest in their content. Instagram uses many factors to determine this level of interest:

Viewer activity level
Frequency of profile visits
Viewer interaction with creator account with likes, comments, etc.
Messages sent by the viewer to the Story poster

Each factor is assigned a certain weight, which is added up to determine the position of a particular person in the viewing order. Of these factors, testers determined that profile views had the most impact. Tests have shown that visiting a user's profile frequently puts a particular viewer in a high position on the list without any other involvement.

Various tests have also shown that Instagram uses interaction data from Facebook to determine the order in which stories are viewed. Since Facebook owns Instagram, this is not surprising. However, the extent to which this interaction data affects browsing order is not clear.

Using Instagram Stories View Order

The order serves as a useful tool for creators to determine who in their audience is most interested in their content. To take full advantage of this information, they need a good strategy for engaging with these people:

Find out who the most engaged users are by tracking them when they appear as history viewers.
Tag them in content related to the stories they viewed.
Engaging them in Instagram conversations in both private and public messages.

The point of this strategy is to get your account to the top when they log in. This will help you move them through the sales channel or to your site more often.

Attracting low-ranking viewers

Capturing people's interest from the bottom of their Instagram Stories view order list is also vital for creators. Moving people up the list will indicate their growing interest and help creators deliver more content to them.

Since the frequency of profile views is a significant factor, creators should encourage viewers to navigate from their stories to their profile pages more often. One way to do this is to use the Swipe Up feature. This feature allows people to go to a user's profile page or other links by simply swiping up on screens while viewing stories. The video below shows how:

However, the Swipe Up feature is only available to those with 10,000 or more subscribers. Those who don't have this number can check out the followers listed here. An alternative way for those with a smaller audience to link to their profile is to tag yourself in the headlines of your stories. This inserts a clickable link:

Adding visual cues and calls to action around the link helps entice viewers to click on it and go to the profile.

Interaction with viewers Story

Active use of viewer stories and accounts will also encourage them to visit the creator's profile more often:

When commenting on viewer posts, creators should do more than just remove the link. They should focus on talking about the content of the viewer and how it relates to their own.
This will incentivize viewers to visit their profiles and increase those viewers' positions in the Instagram view order.
Creators can take this idea further and engage their viewers on Facebook and WhatsApp. Because these three apps are under the same ownership, it's easy to share content between them.
WhatsApp in particular is useful for engaging Instagram viewers on a more personal level.

These commitments will greatly increase people's interest in the order in which Instagram stories are viewed and demonstrate that Instagram is a two-way street.

Get more views using view order Instagram Story

Instagram Story view order is a surprisingly handy metric that creators can use to measure viewer interest in their content and find out who is doing it. Creators can take advantage of this:

Knowing how view order is determined: Creators should be familiar with the algorithm that is used to sort their viewer list and the factors that affect the listing.
Attract viewers correctly: They should use this list as a guide on who to attract first among their viewers and get them to interact even more, especially when that person is an Instagram influencer on the rise.
How to Engage More Viewers: Creators should aim to push lower-ranked viewers to the top of their lists by leading them to more of their Instagram content.

These steps will help creators drive more views to their stories, make their account a focal point for many followers, and drive traffic to their pages.

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Is there a way to find out how many times someone has viewed your Instagram story?

Have you ever wondered who actually views the stories you add to your Instagram account? And can you tell if someone has watched it more than once? Well, there is no need to be surprised, because we will answer all these questions and many more.

What is an Instagram Story?

Instagram allows you to add content that disappears after 24 hours. This is separate from your posts, which are visible on your profile. You can set privacy on your account to control who can view these disappearing stories. Instagram has also added a feature (Private Stories) that allows you to create custom audiences for your stories.

You can also repost content to your story so others can easily find it. Clicking on the 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 Highlights. Your saved history will be available on your profile.

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How to find out who viewed your story on Instagram

Instagram lets you know who viewed your story in the app. It also lets you know the order in which your history was viewed. This way, you can probably guess who has notifications for your stories.

To find out who viewed your Instagram story, launch the app and click on your story in the top left corner.

At the bottom of the story, you should see a "Who Sees" button with images above it. This means that your story has been viewed. Next to the "Who's watching" box is a number that represents the number of people who viewed your story, i.e. 100 people saw them.

Click the Who Seen button to open a list of people who have viewed your story.

Alternatively, you can simply scroll through the history.

Do you see how many times someone views your Instagram story?

While you can see who has viewed your story, it's impossible to tell if a person has viewed your story more than once. The generated list is based on who viewed your story and when. It is not restored if the user views your history again at a later stage.

Every 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 reviewing it again, their name will not rise to the top of the list. This means you can't tell if a person has viewed your story once or a hundred times.

Can you tell if someone is taking screenshots of your story?

No, Instagram doesn't notify you if a user takes a screenshot of your story. While some apps, such as Snapchat, immediately notify the user when someone captures their story, there is no way for Instagram to tell the same.

In fact, even if a user shares your story with someone, you won't get a notification.

How to know if someone is taking a screenshot of your DM photo

A new app update now notifies you when a user takes a screenshot of your profile photo. To be clear, you will only get a notification when you send a live photo (taken from your camera) to a person and they take a screenshot. The same does not apply to messages, direct messages, or sent stories.

When a person takes a screenshot of your photo in their account, this will bring this conversation to the top of the list. Your DM list will also say "Screenshot".

In addition, you can check if a person has a screenshot of your photo in their account by opening a chat. A screenshot symbol will appear next to the photo you sent.

What about Snapchat?

So Snapchat tells you how many times your Snapchat story is viewed?

In this aspect, Snapchat follows the same rule as Instagram. The app doesn't let you know if a user has viewed your story more than once. Until a recent update, there was a trick to detect if someone was viewing your story again (because their name jumped to the top of the viewer list). However, a recent update got rid of this feature.

The list of viewers is now simply populated based on the order in which the story is viewed. This way, even if the person views your story again, their name won't move to the top of the list.

What about other social media apps?

Do any social media apps tell you how many times a user views your story?

Currently, none of the popular social media applications allow this.