Instagram is Giving Us Another Statistic to Obsess Over

You post a photo to Instagram and the next few hours are spent analyzing how many likes it got and by whom.

But now, Mashable reports that there will be a brand new number for us all to over-analyze: the video view count.

Pretty soon, when you post a video to Instagram, you'll get to see how many views your video gets over time, just like it does on Facebook. Also like Facebook, it will count a "view" as three seconds watched, which is a bit silly as videos on Insta play automatically. 

Instagram has announced that this feature will be rolled out within the next few weeks. You'll be able to view the count right under your video, and then tap to see who viewed your video. The view count will be taking place of the like count, and to see how many likes your video received you'll have to tap on the view count.

The move can be seen as a play to compete with competitors like Vine, YouTube, and Snapchat. If advertisers get to see how many views their videos get, then they're more likely to buy video ads on Instagram. 

While we're on the subject, you can follow ZM on Instagram at @zmonline!

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