Here’s the Instagram update we never knew we needed until now

When we’re scrolling through Instagram and liking photos left and right, we tend to consider it a fairly simple process. Yet, for people (such as brands) who want to know exactly how many times a certain vid is being watched, things aren’t as easy.

Just like Facebook, Instagram will soon be streamlining this process by counting video views, which will definitely help eliminate this modern guessing game. Yet, there is another reason behind the change: Instagram hopes to host more video advertisements that will be displayed in the corner beneath clips uploaded by both companies and consumers. This transition will be occurring over the course of the next few weeks, so get ready!

Our next question: what exactly counts as a view?

On YouTube, one must watch 30 seconds of a video for it to be counted. On Facebook, the standard is significantly less: 3 seconds – which is what Instagram will be implementing. (Since Instagram’s videos play automatically, this is a pretty sweet deal.)

This adjustment will be following in the footsteps of Instagram’s latest change, which occurred last week. The social media company started allowing brands – not consumers – to post 60-second clips instead of the usual 30 seconds. This aims to help businesses that want to allocate funds to social media advertising (as opposed to the TV marketing of the past).

In the past six months, Instagram has allegedly increased its video watch rate by 40%. For the average Instagram user, this may not mean anything, but corporations and social media stars are probably celebrating right now, since they no longer have to pay to see video counts.

Now, what exactly does this mean for everyone else?

Well, we’ll probably be seeing more ads and more videos in general. In other words, still photos may soon be a thing of the past – though we have a feeling that selfies are here to stay.