Instagram replaces “Impressions” with “Views”: What you need to know
Updated 3 months ago
Why you’re now seeing “Views” instead of “Impressions” on Instagram
Instagram just changed one of its key metrics — what used to be “Impressions” is now called “Views.”
And if you're using Metricool, you’ve probably noticed the update too.
💡 Heads up: Meta (Instagram) says this new metric is still in development, so you might notice some inconsistencies in the data — especially if you're promoting posts.
What exactly changed?
Meta announced this change to simplify how content performance is measured.
🔗 You can read the official announcement here: 👉 Introducing “Views” to Simplify Content Insights – Meta for Creators
What’s changing in Metricool?
✅ Starting April 7:
On accounts, posts, and reels, you’ll see Views instead of Impressions.
To keep your historical data consistent:
Before January 1, 2025: you’ll still see Impressions.
From January 1, 2025 onward: you’ll see Views.
In the analytics dashboard you will find tooltips to show where the switch happens.
Note: Metricool updated its nomenclature on April 7, 2025. Meta officially deprecated the previous metric in its API on April 21, 2025 (v22.0). Since that date, views include replays.
📊 In post and reel listings:
We’re splitting the data into two columns:
Organic Views
Promoted Impressions
Why? Because summing them (like Instagram used to) doesn’t give accurate results when a post has been promoted.
⏳ What about Stories?
For now, we’re still showing “Impressions.”
Why? Instagram doesn’t return full view data once a Story expires. We’ll switch to Views once the API works properly.
🧾 In Looker Studio:
“Impressions” will still work, but it’ll now show the updated View numbers.
We’re also adding a new field for Organic Views.
📌 Quick summary:
Where | Before | Now | Changed? |
|---|---|---|---|
Account, Posts, Reels | Impressions | Views | ✅ |
Stories | Impressions | Impressions (no changes for now) | ❌ |
Post & Reel listings | Organic Impressions + Promoted | Organic Views + Promoted Impressions | ✅ |
Looker Studio | Impressions | Views + new Organic Views field | ✅ |
⚠️ Why don’t you see “Impressions” data for previous periods?
As mentioned, since April 2024 Meta replaced the “Impressions” metric with “Views” in its API.
In addition, the most recent API versions (from v22.0 onwards) no longer allow requesting the “impressions” metric for any content, even if it was published before the change.
At Metricool, we use the v23.0 version of Meta’s API, so it’s not possible to retrieve or request the “impressions” metric for any element.
This means:
If you connected your account before April 2024, you’ll see older impression data because we already had it stored.
If you connected your account after the change, impression data will appear as 0, since the API no longer returns that information.
“Views” data will be available retroactively only as far back as Meta allows in its API calls.
👉 In short: this isn’t an error but a technical limitation of Meta’s API, which no longer allows requesting the impressions metric and limits the available history for views.
📝 Notes
In the hashtags table, we’ll also switch from Impressions to Views.
In the Brand Summary, we’ll add a tooltip explaining that Instagram Impressions are now shown as Views.