Introducing post stats in the Substack app

And more on how the app helps creators grow

Today we are introducing post stats in the Substack app for iOS and Android. This highly requested feature allows you to view the most important statistics for your posts, a more detailed breakdown of where new subscribers are coming from, and a new Discussion tab to house all conversations around your post in a single place. 

Creative director

Ali LaBelle

, who writes the design publication

À La Carte

, says: 

I’ve always loved the Substack app as a reader, but the new data features make the experience of using it as a writer so much richer. I love the Discussion tab, which makes it so much easier to respond to those interacting with the post without having to scroll through a long list of notifications. The ability to see how a post is performing quickly and on the go is also a game changer.

More than 25% of new free subscriptions already come from the Substack app—which includes discovery surfaces like Notes, search, the leaderboards, and Your Weekly Stack. Along with Recommendations, the Substack network drives more than 50% of new free subscriptions and more than 30% of new paid subscriptions. (Curious how the app is driving growth for you? Check your updated publication dashboard.)

The Substack app is evolving into an essential companion for writers and creators—starting here, with much more to come. We hope these new features will help you build community, manage your publication, and expand your reach across Substack. 

Learn more: How the Substack app helps writers grow

Post stats in the app

For the first two days after you publish a post, you’ll be able to access your post stats from a banner that sits at the top of your Home tab in the app. Otherwise, you can see stats for any past post by navigating to that post in the app and clicking the blue “View stats” banner under the post title.

In the Stats tab, you’ll find a sequence of helpful data:

• Engagement: How many times your post was liked, commented on, restacked, and shared. You can tap each of the first three icons to see details.

• Views: Total views for the post, including growth over time and a comparison to your average views per post.

• Revenue: Estimated revenue increase from this post, including growth over time and a comparison to your average revenue per post.

• New subscribers: The number and profiles of people who subscribed after reading the post. (We show profile links only for subscribers with profiles set up.)

• Subscriber sources: The number of new subscribers (free and paid) from each source, in ranked order. You can tap the names of other Substack publications, and the “Substack” category includes platform discovery surfaces such as Notes, search, the leaderboards, and other recommendations.

• Traffic sources: The number of views from each source, in ranked order.

We recommend using this post data to inform your growth strategy: Which websites send you the most new subscribers? Which kinds of posts perform the highest above average? Your stats can provide helpful pointers for where to invest the most energy. 

Learn more: How can I access my post stats from the Substack app?

Discussion tab

We also built a new Discussion tab in the app to act as a home for all conversations about your post, making it easy to engage with your community. 

The Discussion tab is located at the top right of the stats view. By default, this includes all comments, restacks, quotes, and links to your post, sorted in reverse chronological order. You can also filter to a specific engagement type: for example, “Links” is a brand-new view that displays all links to your post from other Substack posts.

We want to make it simple to interact with your subscribers and fellow creators. Liking restacks of your post in Notes, replying to thoughtful comments, and DMing with writers who link to your post in their own publication are all great ways to spark stronger connections. 

Subscribers from the app

Finally, we updated the web publisher dashboard to show exactly how the Substack app is contributing to your publication’s growth. The “Subscribers from the app” statistic in the Overview shows the total number of people who subscribed to your publication directly from the Substack app, plus the increase over the past 30 days. 

If you click on this module, you’ll see your Network stats, which provide a full breakdown of how Substack has helped you grow through platform features like the app, Recommendations, and one-click payments.  

Read more: A guide to your Substack Network metrics

When the Substack app launched in March 2022, it was a cleaner alternative to the email inbox. We started with a first-class reading tool, but that was always a seed for bigger plans. We’ve since transformed the app into a growth machine for Substack publications. Chat helps creators build intimate communities with subscribers. Notes has become a major discovery engine. And our data shows that readers with the Substack app are 25% more likely to become paid subscribers, 44 times as likely to share your posts, and 15 times as likely to leave a comment. 

The next evolution for the Substack app is to make it a powerful and indispensable part of the publisher experience, beginning with this new stats view. We’re excited to make progress on this vision and to help you take your creative toolkit wherever you go.

Check out the latest features in the Substack app and then let us know: What tools are you excited to see us develop in the app next?