Twitter has announced that it will now display video view counts on all videos posted to the platform.
Twitter’s been experimenting with video view counts for a while, with some users reporting seeing them, then having them disappear again. Now, it seems, they’ll be here to stay.
But then, of course, that once again opens up the debate around what counts as an actual, effective video view, or what should count and signal viewer intent. For Twitter, the count displayed on each video, which autoplays as users scroll, is based on the video being played for at least two seconds while at least half on screen.
That seems a little misleading, and probably not indicative of people actually watching that content – but then again, it’s fairly in line with how other platforms measure views.
- Facebook – 3 seconds on screen counts as a video view (half on screen on mobile)
- Snapchat – A view is counted as soon as the Snap is opened
- Instagram – 3 seconds on screen counts as a video view, Instagram Stories video views counted on opening
Of all of them, YouTube has the most detailed and stringent calculation of view counts, with a view being counted after 30 seconds, or a relative percentage of a video, based on length.
Comparatively, Twitter’s numbers are along similar lines to the other platforms, though it’s obviously in their interests to present view counts which are as high as possible, within logical reason.
Whether those measurements actually indicate viewer interest or not will be up to each individual publisher to decide and work with – but either way, now Twitter’s giving all users the data to use for their own purposes and information.