The new Instagram metric that's about to change everything

Get The Beatles on the horn, because all your Instagram metrics are about to Come Together (sorry.)

Recently, Head of Insta, Adam Mosseri, announced a unifying change to how content performance gets measured on the app. Instead of separately measuring plays for Reels, likes on photos and comments on carousels, there'll soon be one overarching metric for all of your content:

'Views.'

This way, Mosseri says, creators will have an easier time understanding how their content is doing, regardless of what form it comes in. Or, in the immortal words of Kronk from The Emperor's New Groove:

'Oh yeah, it's all coming together.'

Mosseri announced the change in a video update and explained the thought process behind it:

'For a long time you've been able to see how many plays a Reel gets, and we're going to evolve that forward and make it consistent across all types of content, so photos, carousels, Stories and Reels,' he said.

According to Mosseri, the three most important metrics on Insta are now:

• Sends - how often your content gets shared or reposted

• Reach - how many individual people see your content

• And now, views

'Your views are different than your reach,' he explained. 'The same person can view the same piece of content multiple times.

Mosseri said the key to successful content now lies in 'sends per reach.' This means the rate at which your content gets shared compared to the number of people who see it. Instagram plans to roll out this new ‘views’ metric over the coming weeks.

So what does this mean for those of us creating content?

For some insight into Insta's new... insights, I went to one of our resident Show Writers, pie-themed content creator, and man of the golden curls-- erm, Curls (@itscurlsbaby).

I asked the often cheery bastard for his thoughts on the change. Here's his take:

'In what appears to be a cynical move by Instagram, it seems that content lacking meaning or purpose, often known as "brain rot," will now be prioritised in user’s feeds.

'Sure, the centralisation of metrics is a good thing. And views are the OG bar we all strive for. But it looks like Instagram wants to ape TikTok’s stranglehold on our attention by flooding our feed with bite size, quick-look content such as memes, dance crazes, and ad hoc trends.'

Well, we can't blame the platform for giving the people what they want. And this will likely make Instagram more popular than ever for creators and audiences. But it does make us wonder what it will mean for the platform--and us--in the long run.

-Devin, Copywriter