How often do you find yourself checking the amount of likes your latest Instagram post has received? Well with Instagram’s latest news, this could be a thing of the past! The photo-sharing app is trialling hiding post likes in a further six countries, after it began tests in Canada back in April.

Users in Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Japan and New Zealand may now start to see the changes, which is set to hide the amount of post likes and video views on posts. Whilst users will still be able to tap and see the amount of likes a post has received, their followers won’t be able to see. Whether you’ve received ten likes or 10,000 likes, only you will know.

When it comes to personal wellbeing, this change could be a great move and work wonders at minimising feelings of inferiority and anxiety around the popularity of posts. The potential changes could also lead to users focusing more on posting the content they love, rather than what they think might perform well.

For many brands, this could also alter the way in which they work with influencers. Likes are a simple way to measure the success of a sponsored post, as well as figuring out the authenticity of an influencer. After all, a user with 1,000,000 followers but only 50 likes per post probably isn’t genuine. Brands will still be able to request engagement figures and look at post comments, so this doesn’t present too many issues. In fact, forcing brands to research even further into who they work with can only be a good thing.

However, the removal of likes won’t alter the measurement tools for business and creator profiles on the app, meaning brands will still be able to measure the ‘success’ of their posts, whether this is based on likes, engagement or comments.

This news comes just weeks after Instagram announced its new anti-bullying measures, so it seems as though the platform is committed to creating a safer space for users.

Here at SCS we think these potential changes sound positive. Social media should be a place to discover, create and really enjoy the content we’re consuming – and a move towards this from Instagram can only be a positive thing for brands. We’ll be keeping an eye out for UK updates – stay here to keep in the know!