Instagram Moves on With Intent to Remove Follower Post LikesByBill Toulas-November 9, 2019.1116 Users are still demanding a chronological order to return, but this is unlikely to happen. As the shift is fundamental, influencers and marketers will now have to change their approach. Instagram will extend its “likes secret” service to Australia Brazil Ireland Italy Japan and New Zealand, after a two-month pilot test period in Canada. That will most likely be the final step before the popular social media site hides likes to end the vanity side of using Instagram globally. As they point out, they do this to help followers focus their attention on the actual content and not the number of likes that surround every message. Users will still be able to see how many comments their posts are getting but friends and followers will not. We are currently running a test that hides the total number of likes and video views for some people in the following countries: [ Australia ] Brazil Canada [ Ireland ] Italy [ New Zealand ] pic.twitter.com/2OdzpIubka For now Instagram will carry this out tentatively so that only “test users” will get the new functionality even for the above mentioned countries. Participating in it is optional, of course, and one can always go back to showing others their post likes. Nevertheless, the plan to retire this method is now clear and the old system’s days are numbered. It’s a massive change that nobody asked for and almost nobody expected. Contrary users are still yelling to bring back the “chronological order listing” as the content curation algorithms still don’t work the way the site has hoped. So does this mean posts will no longer carry a performance rating? Clearly Instagram wants people to stop paying attention to the number of likes a post is receiving to remove the element of prejudice. Creators will be free to publish content without having to think about seeming popularity so in that way it can be freeing to them. But influencers and marketers are dependent on this measure of performance in order to promote themselves and their company so this is a game-changer. Ads may now be issued on “paying advertisement” programs run by Instagram itself, and not to influencers. Such a change could push influencers to communicate their real self more authentically without taking care to endorse products and services. As far as brand profiles are concerned, they will have to engage in discussions with their fans to build a relationship with their audience rather than simply relying on “cold” counts. In the months ahead Instagram will examine how a like-free platform plays out users will continue to ask for chronological order and influencers will begin to re-evaluate their choices in life and career. The positive part is that people are most likely to get a more original, less ad-filled outlet that doesn’t focus purely on shoving things down their throats.