How do my TikTok and Instagram posts play, and do plays count on the platform?

Each social channel has a How Posts Play setting in its editor under Podspun.com Setup, with two players.

The Podspun player (the default) plays our archived copy of the post right on the page. It starts instantly, the transcript beside it is clickable so a reader can jump to any line, and plays count in your Podspun analytics. These plays do not appear in the post's TikTok or Instagram view count, because the platforms only count plays that stream through their own players.

The TikTok / Instagram player uses the platform's own embedded player, so each real play counts toward the post's view count there. It loads slower, and the transcript sits beside it as plain text without the click-to-jump.

One thing worth weighing: a post earns nearly all of its platform views in its first days in the feed. These pages mostly help people find and read older posts through search and topics, so for a back catalog the running count barely moves either way, and the choice mostly comes down to how the page feels to use.