In his weekly Q&A session, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri responded to a user who suggested adding screenshots as an official metric in Instagram Insights.
Mosseri admitted: “That is actually interesting, I haven’t heard that request before. I’ll see. I’ll talk to the team and see what they think.”
That doesn’t mean it’s happening, yet, but it does show that Instagram may be open to the idea.
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And there’s logic behind it. Screenshots have long been a hidden driver of reach. Twitter, for example, once revealed that it reached nearly double its logged-in audience, largely because tweets were being screenshot and shared across other apps. Twitter even experimented with screenshot prompts back in 2022, while X is now watermarking screenshots on iOS to boost brand visibility.
For Instagram, screenshots could offer another way to track true engagement at a time when user behavior is shifting. More people share posts in private DMs than in public feeds, while personalized recommendations mean users don’t even need to hit “Follow” to keep seeing content they like.
As a result, Instagram has already moved toward “views first” as its primary metric. In that context, counting screenshots could add another valuable signal, an indicator of deeper interest that goes beyond likes, comments, or shares.
Whether Instagram makes the leap remains to be seen, but if it does, brands and creators may soon have a new number to factor into their performance analysis.