Instagram Insights Are Going Live: Here Is What You Can Expect

A while back, Instagram announced they were going to release a new feature called "Insights.” This new addition is designed to give users a look at how their followers interact with their content. It seems that this is slowly rolling, but as of today, I have access to this new feature, so I thought it would be helpful for everyone to see exactly what they can expect to learn.  

To start, I’m not certain of how the rollout of this feature is taking place. All I know is that I have been using the app on and off throughout the last day, and while scrolling through my feed, it randomly popped up saying that I could activate my insights. After talking with a few people, it looked like I was the only one of the bunch that had it.

After you say you want to get started and connect with Facebook, you have full access to the features. On the initial screen you are shown a scrolling field that either shows total impressions this week or total reach this week. Below that you can see your top posts in the last 7 days, then below that you get your followers info. If you click “what do these mean” at the very bottom, you are shown a description of what everything is. The only confusing part for me was the “website clicks” portion, because that field is not currently showing for my account even though I do have a link on my profile.

From here, you have the option of clicking to see more for both the top posts area and the followers area. Expanding on the top posts section will take you to an area where you can view your top posts based on a set of adjustable criteria. Within the filter, you can sort to only see info for photos, videos, or both. Then, you decide whether you would like to see the top impressions, reach, engagement, likes, or comments. Finally, you tell it for what time frame you would like to see; 7 days, 30 days, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, or 2 years.  

Currently I’m only seeing three images no matter what date range I choose. This is most likely because Instagram was not capturing this info for images older than the three that are showing. When viewing images on your profile, you will now see a “view insights” link that can take you directly to the insights for that specific image. If I click this link for older images, it just tells me insights are only available for newer images.

When seeing more info about followers, you are shown the total number of followers. This is different from your main page, because instead of seeing a number like 10.7K, you can now see the full number, such as 10,726. Below this, you can see the gender, age range, top location by city or country, then followers by hours or days.

The thing for me that jumps out as the most useful is the followers info by hours and days. Before, we would have to take a shot in the dark as to when was the best time and best days to post images. Now, we have a graphical representation of exactly what days our followers are active and at what times.

My only issue so far is that that I don't know how accurate everything is. For example, in the above screenshot, it's telling me I don't have any followers on Instagram for Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I know this isn't true, though. We also are not given any insight into what kinds of figures each bar is representing. Maybe Instagram doesn't think we need to know values and instead only need to know that one day is better than the other? It would still be nice information to have, though.

Another small feature that has been rolled out is for when users you do not follow try to send you images within a DM. Instead of automatically seeing the image while you are accepting or declining the message, you now have to tap on the image to see it.

All in all, I think the new insights feature is a welcome addition. I look forward to watching everything mature and allowing us to see more and more useful information.

Do you have access to Insights yet? What do you think? What would you like to see added?