Impressions and Reel Plays Deprecation and Introduction of Views Metric

Updated 

2 months ago

Starting April 21, 2025, Instagram will deprecate several Impressions and Reel Plays metrics and introduce new Views metrics at both the post and account levels. This article outlines these changes and shares Sprinklr’s recommendations to help you smoothly transition your reporting practices.

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Deprecation of Impressions and Reel Plays Metrics

Instagram will deprecate the following metrics starting April 21, 2025. These metrics will continue to populate until April 20, 2025 -

  • Post Level Metrics:

    • Instagram Business Post Impressions

    • Instagram Business Post Impressions Trend

    • Instagram Business Post Initial Reel Plays

    • Instagram Business Post Initial Reel Plays Trend

    • Instagram Business Post Total Reel Plays

    • Instagram Business Post Total Reel Plays Trend

    • Instagram Business Post Reel Replays

    • Instagram Business Post Reel Replays Trend

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  • Account Level Metrics:

    • Instagram Business Total Impressions

    • Instagram Business Weekly Total Impressions

    • Instagram Business 28 Days Total Impressions

Data Availability After Deprecation

  • For posts published before July 1, 2024: New data for Impressions will continue to populate.

  • For posts published on or after July 1, 2024: We will retain all historical data up to the deprecation date.

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Introduction of New Views Metrics

Instagram now uses the Views metrics to report content visibility. While Views serve a similar purpose to Impressions, they are calculated differently. To ensure reporting accuracy, always compare Views with data in the native Instagram interface. Below is a list of all the new view metrics introduced at the post and account level:

  • Post Level Metrics:

    • Instagram Business Post Views

    • Instagram Business Post Views Trend

  • Account Level Metrics:

    • Instagram Account Daily Views

    • Instagram Account Daily Views by Follow and Product Type

    • Instagram Account Daily Views by Product Type

  • Backfill Details:

    • Instagram Business Post Views (lifetime) will be backfilled starting August 2024.

    • Instagram Business Post Views Trend will not be backfilled. Data will be available only from the point of integration.

Impact on Reporting

These changes affect how you measure content visibility across all Instagram media types, including Photos, Reels, and Stories. Here's how your reporting may be impacted:

  • Widgets, dashboards, and custom metrics that rely on Impressions or Reel Plays will gradually lose relevance, especially for content published after July 1, 2024.

  • Trend analyses using the new Views metric may show gaps due to the lack of backfilled historical trend data.

  • Metric values may differ: Views are conceptually similar to Impressions/Reel Plays but follow a different aggregation method, so reported figures will not be an exact match.

  • Any downstream dependencies (alerts, benchmarks, performance monitoring, etc.) relying on deprecated metrics may require reconfiguration.

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Sprinklr Recommendations

To prepare for this transition:

  • Start migrating from Impressions and Reel Plays to the new Views metric across all reporting assets such as widgets, dashboards, custom metrics, and analytics workflows.

  • Avoid comparisons between historical Impressions/Reel Plays and new Views metrics, as their definitions and calculations defer.

  • Plan migration early to ensure reporting continuity and reduce last-minute changes before April 21, 2025.

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FAQs

Yes, Instagram has introduced new "Views" metrics to replace the deprecated ones -

  • Instagram Business Post Views replaces Instagram Business Post Impressions and Instagram Business Post Total Reel Plays.

  • Instagram Account Daily Views replaces Instagram Business Total Impressions.

 We do not have any alternative metric for other Deprecated metrics.

 

Note: While these new metrics serve the same purpose, Instagram has confirmed they are not 1:1 equivalents due to differences in how they're aggregated at the channel end.

You can access data for the deprecated metrics until April 20, 2025. After this date, no new data will be collected for these metrics.

Yes, the backfill for Instagram Business Post Views (Lifetime) has been completed from August 2024 for most of the clients and would be completed for remaining clients by 11th May.

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Note: Trend metrics cannot be backfilled and will only have data from the point of integration.

No, Instagram has not provided specific details about the calculation differences. They have advised that Views metrics should be validated against Native Instagram analytics and should not be directly compared with Impressions/Total Reel Plays metrics.

While analyzing sample posts, we observed that Instagram Business Post Views differed from Instagram Business Post Impressions, but exactly matched the values for Instagram Business Total Reel Plays for the test posts. However, because Instagram has not officially confirmed this pattern, we have added a "Deprecated" tag to the Instagram Business Post Total Reel Plays UI name.

To maintain data continuity, we have implemented a system where Views data will be copied into the Total Reel Plays metric from April 21, 2025. This approach supports clients heavily dependent on Reels data, but we still strongly recommend migrating fully to the Views metric.

We recommend using metrics based on the specific time range being analyzed:

Before August 2024 - Use the deprecated metrics.
August 2024 to April 20, 2025 - Both deprecated and Views metrics will have data.
From April 21, 2025 onwards - Only Views metrics will have data going forward.

Dashboards and reports using the deprecated metrics will not stop functioning, but they will no longer receive new data. For comprehensive reporting, we recommend updating your dashboards to incorporate the new Views metrics.

All historical data will be preserved for all the Deprecated metrics.

While it is technically possible during the transition period, we advise against direct comparisons between Impressions/Reel Plays and Views metrics as they have different calculation methodologies. For accurate performance assessment, use consistent metrics within each reporting period.

This is an Instagram-wide change affecting all platforms that utilize Instagram's API for analytics. Sprinklr is implementing these changes to maintain parity with Instagram's API developments.

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