This is How Instagram Ranks Who Watched Your Stories

Instagram story viewer order

If you are the person who regularly checks their story viewers you have probably wondered how Instagram ranks those people. Why does somebody is always on top of the list while others are always in a different spot on the list? What does this order mean? Despite the popular believe that this ranking is based on the amount of profile visits, it is not true. Instagram does not simply detect your “stalkers” it has a more complicated algorithm. 

So if not by the amount of profile visits how else does Instagram rank your Story viewers? According to Julian Gutman, product lead for Instagram Home, Instagram puts on top of the list people you engage the most with, not otherwise! It is more about your activity than your followers’. Instagram analyzes the people you regularly interact with and places them on the top of your list because it knows that you care about those accounts the most. 

Your Instagram Story viewers ranking is determined by people who are closest to you and by how often you check that ranking. If you are a regular checker than the accounts on the top will be switching from time to time because Instagram will try to show you a new set of people you haven’t yet seen. This is all good but how Instagram determines who you interact with the most?

How does your Instagram determine who you interact with the most?

According to TechCrunch, Instagram new algorithm’s main goal is to let you see content you care the most about like something your close friends and family post. It tries to predict what posts are the most important to you, and determines this by using three main factors – interest, timeliness, and relationship. How does this influence your story ranking?

Again, according to Gutham, Instagram places people who you are closest with on top of your list. It determines your “close circle” by analyzing your interactions, which include your interactions with other accounts’ profiles, posts, and stories. There are so many actions that Instagram classifies as interactions like visiting an account’s profile, likes, comments,   watching someone’s Instagram Stories and chatting in direct messages. Based on those little actions Instagram algorithm determines whose posts and stories you care the most about and puts them higher on your story viewers list. 

Also by using this algorithm Instagram places stories on your feed. If you are a huge fan of someone’s stories and watch them everyday you are more likely to see their stories to pop up in the beginning of your feed. However, sometimes you might see a story from a person you don’t usually view on the beginning of the list. This happens because Instagram uses its “timeliness” factor – it prioritizes recent posts over older ones, even though they might be from your favorite profile. 

One other factor that influences Instagram ranking of your Instagram Stories viewers, is your connections on Facebook.