Twitter Rolls Out ‘View Count’ Feature

It’s now possible for anyone on Twitter to see how many users viewed your tweets, as the platform rolls out its new “View Count” feature.

In a tweet(Opens in a new window), Elon Musk said, “Twitter is rolling out View Count, so you can see how many times a tweet has been seen! This is normal for video.“

The social media company’s CEO added that the feature “shows how much more alive Twitter is than it may seem, as over 90% of Twitter users read, but don’t tweet, reply or like, as those are public actions.” 

Tweet(Opens in a new window)

Reactions to the rollout have been mixed, with some users voicing confusion over what the rollout meant. Referring to the fact that Twitter users were already privately able to see the impressions on their own tweets via the ‘view Tweet analytics’ feature, one user said(Opens in a new window): “[email protected] you’re confusing. So it’s not ‘views’. It’s impressions? We get that stat anyway when we click the bar graph analytics.” The difference, as pointed out(Opens in a new window) by another user, is that “View Count” is a public feature.

Other users, pleased by the rollout, pointed to how the feature could be used to spot if an account was shadowbanned(Opens in a new window), while others alternately said that users may feel taken “aback(Opens in a new window)” by lower-than-expected view counts. 

Tweet(Opens in a new window)

Meanwhile, an ex-Twitter designer tweeted(Opens in a new window) that the “View Count” feature isn’t a new development. Paul Stamatiou said he worked on the feature in 2015, but it was shelved after “most people didn’t get any views” which, he said defeated the purpose of trying to show people that they weren’t “tweeting into the void.”

Stamatiou added: “[It] felt like a useless vanity thing to show that wasn’t worth investing in further.” The designer said the 2015 trial did not count users quickly scrolling past a tweet.

It’s unclear if a user scrolling quickly past a tweet on their timeline would be counted as a ‘view’ in the current rollout.

According to reverse app researcher Nima Owji, it appears that view numbers only show on tweets(Opens in a new window) posted after Dec. 15. And not all users have access to the feature as of yet, though it is currently available on iOS, Android, and web.