WhatsApp rolls out private view counts for channel admins: Here's what it means

Meta owned instant messaging app WhatsApp is rolling out a much-awaited feature for its channels. The feature will allow admins to have deeper insights into their audience. The platform has finally made the Private View Counts for WhatsApp Channels available to beta testers on both iOS and Android. After spending more than a year, the company is now allowing admins to see exactly how many people have viewed each channel update. Also Read: WhatsApp Is Testing Quiz Feature For Channels: Here’s How It Works

According to WhatsApp, the feature is designed to help creators, organizations, and businesses to better understand what content resonates with their followers. For this, they will not expose the numbers publicly. Also Read: WhatsApp's New Feature That No One Asked For: Ads In Status And Channels Are Here

WhatsApp Private View Counts available for channel admins

WhatsApp has started rolling out private view counts in the latest beta versions of the app. After this update is publicly rolled out, when a channel admin publishes an update, a view counter will appear. It will surface directly inside the message bubble and will show how many followers have viewed that specific post. Also Read: Top celebrities to follow on WhatsApp Channels

View counts are not visible to anyone except the channel administrator unlike metrics that are visible to others on other social networks. Users who follow the channel will not see its view statistics.

This feature works on both Android and iOS, so the admin can use any device for a consistent experience.

How to use the Feature

After an update is posted to the channel, WhatsApp will automatically keep track of how many views the channel’s update receives.

Here’s what happens

• When you logged in as admin, you’ll see a view counter under the admin’s channel update.
• The number of followers increases the more they view the post.
• This information is only available to the channel admin.
• Users in FOLLOWERS keep getting updates but no engagement stats.

This is deliberately design so as to provide admin with analytics without compromising the viewing experience for followers.

Importance of view count

As of now, there were few options available to channel admins for measuring the performance of their posts. Messages that were forwarded provided some measure of engagement – but were not a true sign of the number of people who viewed an update.

The new private view counts feature allows admins to now:

• Recognise the most attended updates.
• Know what type of content is effective.
• Optimize posting for the future in response to audience interest.
• Avoid the metrics that focus solely on the number of followers.

With time, these can be used to guide the channel owner in developing content that is more relevant and engaging for their audience.

Public View Counts are still being developed

WhatsApp is not done with private analytics.

The company is also developing a public version of channel view counts, although it isn’t available for testing yet.

After being added, public view counts would enable all the followers of the channel to see how many people have viewed each update like view counters on other social platforms.

But at present only admins can access this information.

Difference between private vs public view counts

Rollout timeline

It is now being rolled out to a group of beta testers on the latest versions of WhatsApp for Android and iOS. This feature may be available on some users using the stable version or not.

Like all WhatsApp updates, this one will be rolled out slowly. If the view counter is not available on your channel yet, it will be available in the coming weeks.

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WhatsApp hasn’t said when it’ll roll out to more countries around the world.