Instagram will be hiding likes internationally

I'm not too sure which side of the fence I fall on for this topic. As a business account you can still see your insights. From a user perspective i'm not sure weather or not someone else has "liked" a photo has any bearing on weather or not I will like it. Photos that are liked will still show up on a persons Follower Feed. A like is one metric but I think a better metric for measurement is engagement. Id rather less people like a photo if it meant more people would engage that photo.

Interesting move by IG here. There are many angles to this simple move and it will be interesting to see how IM's adapt as they always so cleverly do.

I don't think hiding likes will prevent me from liking a photo. I actually tend to continue scrolling when I see a photo has thousands of likes. I'm more likely to like a photo that has a lower like count because I FEEL like my engagement (like) is more meaningful for that user.

The same goes for comments as well. I want the OP and other followers to reply to my comment or answer my question, so I'm less likely to comment on a post with thousands of comments because it will just get lost in the shuffle. I get a kick out of hate comments in a thread of thousands upon thousands of comments like they think someone relevant will see their hatred and engage with them.

If the OP can still see the number of likes, although it may not be as many as before, the numbers can still provide relevant data for ad campaigns. They can still see which posts are receiving a better response and adapt accordingly.

This does make things a little more difficult for up and coming IM's as they (we) rely on likes and comments on influencer posts to help determine what works well and what doesn't work so well. What's popular and what's not. Relying on comments alone will not provide as much concrete insight.

When technology shifts, those who adapt best will win. Those who are stubborn and complain will lose. This is just another one of those changes, so let's see who adapts best.

I am at a loss here. Don't you think the effect of such an action would affect Instagram? after all, social media thrives on engagement. So trying to minimize it will make the network less popular. As a person, I would frequent social media that allows my comments reacted on.

I think jealous girlfriends and boyfriends the world over are going to lose their shit LMAO

This is pretty interesting. I am not sure how users will take this. I mean the influencers. I hope it doesn't plummet

The update would good for the general users, being away from the pressure of likes. But it seems to be a drawback for businesses and influencers. However, there's still a way for other people to check likes if they really need to. There's a platform called phlanx that can calculate likes per post.

I like it. Keeps you focused on the process, not outcomes, and all success flows from surrender to the process. I like getting Likes of course and figure social proof plays a role in success but speaking/chatting with human beings is the key to success. IG is making us speak to humans. I dig it.

Looks like some form of bot control.

Seems like everyone has a bot for sale, all you need to look at is how these bots ruined wordpress comments. I'm sure this is the consideration and they are testing to see how this plays out.