Social media likes may soon indefinitely be a thing of the past, at least on Instagram. It seemed like 2019 was full of updates for all social media platforms. From Facebook to Twitter banning political ads to Instagram’s various updates, social media is constantly changing and evolving.
One noticeable social media change happening to users of all kinds is the disappearance of “likes.” It was first announced that Canadian users would experience their likes disappearing back in April 2019. In July 2019, the same changes applied to users in Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Japan and New Zealand. Facebook began testing hidden likes on its platform for some Australian users in the Fall.
“The new feature hides users’ public like counts on videos and photos in the Feed, on the web, and within profiles.” Instagram announced that it wants followers to “focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get.”
“As you scroll through your feed, there are no like counts,” explained Mark Zuckerberg at F8. “You can see who liked a photo or video, you can tap through to see [the list], and if you have the time you can add them all up yourself.”
Instagram is one of the most popular social media apps with more than 1 billion monthly users and about 500 million daily users on Instagram Stories. There is no opt-in or opt-out to hiding Instagram likes and only time will tell if this feature will altogether be removed for everyone on the popular platform.
Zuckerberg said as much during his keynote, stating: “We want people to be less interested in how many likes a post gets, and focus more on connecting with other people.”
Here is what it looks like when the likes count is gone:
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| Photo: CNN |
What does this mean for users and businesses altogether? The challenge is to continue to create engaging content and engage with your followers. Download selfie signs and a social media calendar of fun holidays for free here. This will help you stand above your competitors and help create new content for your social media platforms.