Is there something you think we should know about Instagram? Email the writer at Signal: 34. In the age of influencers, where the line between personal branding and personal life has all but disappeared, some people are naturally eager to run their Instagram profile like it’s a job-and Instagram is happy to help. Many normal people, with no intention of making money from their Instagram presence, have opted-in to the feature. Any user can convert their personal profile into a “business” or “ creator” one at any time, both of which come with souped-up analytics capabilities. There are now 140 million monthly active “businesses” across Facebook’s various platforms, according to the company. Instagram first introduced business accounts in 2016. Unsurprisingly, opening a business account is also a gateway to buying ads. Amid growing criticism of online platforms, abandoning likes allowed Mosseri to claim that Instagram wants to be “a space that feels much less pressurized.” But the Facebook-owned company has also quietly encouraged some users to embrace the anxiety and power that enhanced metrics can provide, by prompting them to convert their personal profiles into Instagram business accounts. It’s previously tested removing likes in Italy, Canada, Ireland, Japan, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. Twitter also released a beta version of its app earlier this year that puts less prominence on likes and retweets.īut Instagram is one of the only major platforms to try bringing so-called demetrication to a wider segment of users. Like Instagram head Adam Mosseri, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has spoken out about the toxic consequences of overemphasizing statistics like follower and like counts. The experiment is part of a wider shift at social media companies, so far mostly a rhetorical one, away from the metrics it once told people had immense value. People who upload photos and videos will still know how many people liked them-that information just won’t be seen by other users.

Instagram began testing hiding public like counts globally on Thursday, after experimenting with the design tweak in several individual markets abroad.

How to find people on instagram