The end of likes?

Last week, Instagram announced on it's official channels that likes will now be hidden. Early testing trials where done in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan and New Zealand and now the test is rolling out globally.

However, the option of liking is not completely removed from the platform. Users will still be able to like posts but only the content owner can view who liked their posts.

Instagram has become a tool for social validation and for years businesses and bots have worked around the algorithms to feed more likes and followers to the fame hungry generation, creation a toxic social environment.

Hiding the likes should bring a positive change where users are not constantly thinking of ways to get more likes instead of sharing what they like.

“the idea is to depressurise Instagram, make it less of a competition". Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram.

There are a lot of mixed emotions when it comes to the accepting this huge change. It changes the game for content creators and influencers who rely on this metrics for business.

But would it really make a difference?

Instagram Stories have been a massive success for businesses and there are no public metrics for stories. In terms of metrics, followers count and comments are still public. Also, there are numerous platforms that can provide detailed engagement analysis for creators and businesses.