Instagram recently did tests on hidden likes counts on the U.S users, and now has decided to expand this test to all users globally.
Instagram says that:
“While the feedback from early testing in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan and New Zealand has been positive, this is a fundamental change to Instagram, and so we’re continuing our test to learn more from our global community.“
The platform didn’t make it clear what positive result they received by doing the early tests, which makes it difficult to understand what Instagram is factoring in, while testing this new change.
Instagram Cheif mentions that this test is done in order to reduce some pressure on the creators on the platform, and they believe the real success will be measured with the impact users felt on an emotional level. But how can one measure how people feel emotionally on a social media platform.
Vishal Ravish, a Leading Marketer in Social Advertising & a Tech enthusiast, also criticized this move from Instagram on their tweet:
And we do agree with their tweet, this move from Instagram doesn’t seem to make any clear sense with the responses they have given over the matter. We’ll just have to wait a while until we start seeing the impact of this change on a large scale.