How to Get More Views on Instagram Settings

Tucked away inside your Instagram app are a handful of settings that directly control how many people see your content. It’s not about finding a magic button, but about methodically checking a few key toggles that can significantly amplify your organic reach. This guide walks you through the exact settings to find and optimize - from your account type to your Reels defaults - to give your posts the best chance of getting more views.

Start with the Foundation: Your Account Settings

Before you worry about individual posts, you need to make sure your entire account is set up for public discovery. These foundational settings are non-negotiable for anyone looking to grow their audience and increase views.

1. Switch to a Professional Account (It’s Free and Essential)

If you're still using a "Personal" account, you're missing out on vital tools that can directly lead to more views. A Professional Account (either Creator or Business) unlocks access to analytics, contact buttons, and promotional tools. Analytics are especially important - they show you which pieces of content are getting the most views and engagement, so you can make more of what works.

Why this gets you more views: It provides data. You can see your audience's demographics, when they're most active, and which Reels or posts have the highest reach. This information helps you make smarter content decisions designed to reach more people.

How to do it:

• Go to your profile and tap the three horizontal lines (the "hamburger" menu) in the top-right corner.
• Tap Settings and privacy.
• Scroll down and tap Account type and tools.
• Tap Switch to professional account and follow the on-screen prompts.

Quick Tip: Choose "Creator" if you are a public figure, content producer, artist, or influencer. Choose "Business" if you represent a brand, local business, or service provider. The core analytics features are similar for both.

2. Make Your Account Public

This may seem obvious, but it's the single most important setting for getting views from people who don't already follow you. If your account is private, your content will never appear on the Explore Page, on hashtag pages for non-followers, or in Reel feeds for a broader audience. Your reach is permanently limited to your existing follower list.

Why this gets you more views: A public account ensures your content is eligible to be seen by literally billions of users on Instagram, not just the few hundred or thousand who already follow you.

How to do it:

• Go to Settings and privacy.
• Scroll down to the "Who can see your content" section and tap Account privacy.
• Make sure the Private account toggle is switched off.

Optimize Your Sharing and Remix Settings

The secret to exponential growth on Instagram isn't just about the viewers you can find, it's about the viewers your audience can find for you. Enabling sharing settings transforms your followers into a marketing engine that extends your reach far beyond your own profile.

3. Allow Story and Post Sharing

Every time someone shares your Reel or post to their own Story, they are exposing your content to their entire audience. Each of those is a new potential viewer and follower for you. If this setting is turned off, you are cutting off one of the platform's most powerful organic reach tools.

Why this gets you more views: It turns a single view into a potential broadcast. A follower with 500 followers can share your Reel to their Story, instantly putting your content in front of hundreds of new people.

How to do it:

• Go to Settings and privacy.
• Scroll down and tap on Sharing and remixes.
• Under the "Story Sharing" section, make sure the toggles for "Allow sharing to Reels," "Allow sharing to story," and "Allow sharing to messages" are all turned on.

4. Enable Reels Remixing

A "remix" is when another user creates their own Reel alongside yours. This is fantastic promotion. Every time someone remixes your content, your original Reel is shown right next to theirs, credited to you with a direct link back to your profile. It's a powerful way to get featured in front of new audiences while encouraging user-generated content.

Why this gets you more views: When a popular creator remixes your video, their audience sees your original work. This feature is designed to help content go viral by letting trends build on top of each other, and you want your content to be the starting point.

How to do it:

• Go to Settings and privacy and tap on Sharing and remixes.
• Scroll down to the section titled "Allow people to use your content."
• Ensure all three toggles - "Allow remixing of Reels," "Allow remixing of feed videos," and "Allow templates from Reels" - are turned on.

5. Recommend Reels on Facebook

Instagram gives you the option to have your new Reels recommended to users on Facebook. This is essentially free cross-platform promotion that can double or triple your content's initial reach. Because the Meta algorithm knows who might be interested in your content on *both* platforms, it can find relevant viewers for you on Facebook even if they don't follow you on Instagram.

Why this gets you more views: It expands your audience beyond the confines of the Instagram app. You can reach millions of Facebook users who might be interested in your niche but haven't discovered your Instagram profile yet.

How to do it:

• Again, go to Settings and privacy > Sharing and remixes.
• Scroll to the bottom and look for Recommend on Facebook.
• Tap it and make sure the setting is on. Instagram may ask you to choose this for "Future Reels" or apply it on a case-by-case basis. Choosing "Future Reels" saves you a step every time you post.

Max Out Your Content Quality Settings

Instagram's algorithm tends to favor high-quality, visually appealing content. The platform compresses media upon upload to save server space, but there's a setting you can enable to minimize this quality loss and give your posts a better chance of performing well.

6. Turn On High-Quality Media Uploads

This simple setting tells Instagram to upload your photos and videos at the highest possible quality, even if it takes a bit longer. A crisp, clear video is far more engaging than a blurry, pixelated one, which means viewers are more likely to watch it, share it, and engage with it - all signals that tell the algorithm to show it to more people.

Why this gets you more views: Higher quality content is more watchable and appears more professional. The algorithm prioritizes a good user experience, and high-quality visuals are a big part of that. Crisper videos get better engagement, which leads to more reach.

How to do it:

• Go to your Settings and privacy.
• Scroll down and tap on Media quality. (On some accounts, this might be under Data usage and media quality).
• Turn on the toggle for Upload at highest quality.

Use Your Profile as a Discovery Tool

While not "settings" in the traditional menu, the information on your profile can be configured to help more of the right people find you and view your content.

7. Include Keywords in Your Name You Can Be Found With

The "Name" field in your Instagram bio is searchable. Unlike your @username, you can change your Name field to include keywords that describe what you do or who you serve. If you're a fitness coach in Austin, having "Austin Fitness Coach" in your name - not just your bio - makes it more likely you'll show up when people search for those terms.

Why this gets you more views: It brings viewers directly to you through Instagram search. When people discover your profile through a targeted term, they are highly likely to watch your content because you're exactly what they were looking for.

How to find this setting:

• On your profile, tap Edit profile.
• Update the Name field. For example, instead of just "Jane Smith," you could use "Jane Smith | Wedding Planner."

Final Thoughts

Optimizing your Instagram settings is a powerful, free way to boost your visibility. By converting to a Professional Account, throwing the doors open with public sharing options for Reels and Stories, and making sure your content is high-quality, you give your content the best possible chance to flourish on the platform.

Of course, consistently creating and posting great content is still the biggest part of the puzzle. To make that process less chaotic, we built Postbase from the ground up for how social media works today. We were tired of legacy tools that treat short-form video as an afterthought, so we designed a platform where planning Reels, TikToks, and Shorts is simple and visual. You can see your entire content plan on one calendar, schedule posts reliably across all your accounts, and manage all your comments and DMs in one inbox. It lets you focus on creating, not just clicking publish.