Facebook today announced that after extensive testing, it is rolling out the ability to hide likes on either Facebook or Instagram. However, the original plan to hide likes by default has changed, as the social media company is not turning the feature on by default.
Instagram plans on testing three options that allow its users to choose whether to hide or show like count on posts, with Facebook said to follow suit.
It’s undeniable that life is often seen as a kind of race or competition, but I absolutely despise this idea.
If the sheer number of Instagram bots with profiles that read "buy 5,000 likes RIGHT NOW!!!" are any indication, selling fake likes, followers, and comments on Instagram is big business. But it's also risky, as one fraudster from Belarus is finding out first hand.
From the beginning of its "experiment" with hiding likes, Instagram has maintained that the move is meant to improve users' mental health. But according to three former Facebook employees, there's another, more selfish reason why the photo sharing app is making this change: it'll get you to post more often.
Instagram has officially expanded its "test" of the removal of public-facing like counts worldwide. The expansion was announced this morning on Twitter, where the company also attempted to reassure "creators" (read: influencers) that the company is not trying to take away their livelihood.
During an interview at WIRED25 just two hours ago, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri announced that the Facebook-owned photo sharing app is going to begin testing the hiding of "likes" in the USA next week.
Landscape and travel photographer James Popsys has noticed a troubling habit lately: he's posting things "for the dopamine hit," and he doesn't believe he's the only one. The result, says Popsys, is a "photographic groupthink," caused by social media, that encourages people to post the same thing over and over, just because it's popular.
Instagram's controversial experiment with hiding public like counts is only live in seven countries, but it's already inspired some freakouts from influencers who claim the change is crippling their engagement and destroying their livelihood.
Instagram began testing the removal of "likes" from users' photos back in May. Now, it's expanding that test to six more countries, hiding like counts in the hopes that it will "benefit everyone's experience on Instagram."
Instagram is launching a real-world test of hiding Like counts on photos and videos, an idea that was leaked earlier this month. Within the next several days, users in Canada will no longer be able to see the numbers of likes on posts by people they follow.
This isn't a joke. Despite plenty of people not believing that it's real, what you're looking at is a genuine Instagram Likes vending machine, spotted in a mall in Moscow and tweeted out by Russian journalist Alexey Kovalev.
Instagram scheduling tool HopperHQ has been used by thousands of users to share over a million images on Instagram to date, and they just analyzed their entire data set to identify the times of day, filters, captions, and more that make for the most liked Instagram posts.
Instagram has officially shut down one of the most popular botting services on the Internet. Instagress—the same service mentioned in two previous PetaPixel articles about the practice of "botting" to get likes, followers, and comments on Instagram—is officially defunct.
Photographers join photo-sharing sites for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s as simple as a need for recognition and the occasional pat-on-the-back. In fact, I suspect that’s the reason most people join these sites in the first place; a little bit of recognition is worth big dollars in the feel-good bank.
Without a doubt, Instagram is one of the most exciting social media platforms anywhere. It is now ranked the number two most active social media platform by number of users (just behind Facebook) with over 600 million participants.
In something of a followup to his explosive video "Nobody Cares About Your Photography," the always inspirational Ted Forbes is tackling a question that we've all probably asked: What is "work that matters" and how do you make sure your photography measures up?
Companies like Facebook and Instagram have turned photo sharing into an industry dominated by smartphones and "Likes." Nikon's new DSLR ad campaign pushes back against this exploding culture.
It seems the secret to having an enthusiastic following on a major photo sharing site has very little to do with the quality of your pictures. Sure, you can't just post terrible snapshots of nothing, but as one Redditor found out, engaging with the community is actually far more important.
There's a new website that aims to rid the world of ‘un-liked’ Instagram photos. It’s called No Likes Yet and although its name may sound slightly condescending, the goal of the website is anything but.
Chances are good many of our readers couldn't care less about a wedding photo from Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's wedding, or even what the most popular photo on the photo sharing service Instagram is. But the story behind the photo that claims both of those titles is actually pretty interesting.
500px already 'changed the game,' or at the very least raised the bar, when the photo sharing site launched the 500px Prime licensing marketplace. Initially said to offer a 30% cut to photographers, they actually listened to feedback and flipped that number on its head before the final release. Now, those 500px users who want to license their work through 500px Prime make a 70% cut off the top.
But 500px is determined to keep shaking things up, which is why, today, they've decided to put some of the piles of social network data they have at their disposal to use and let clients search the service by gender preference. And this, they promise, is just the beginning.
Forget MIT and their fancy schmancy algorithms that were developed using the scientific method and 2.5 million photos as a sample... this handy little infographic, created in the style of a board game, can probably do a similarly accurate job of predicting how many likes a photo will get.
A photographer's primary concern when taking a photo might not be "I wonder how many likes this will get," but being able to gauge popularity could still come in handy when you're trying to decide which photos to upload to your favorite sharing site.
Enter MIT PhD candidate Aditya Khosla and his new algorithm that does just that: tells you how popular your photos will be before you even upload them.
Editor's Note: After the piece was published, we were made aware of a deal WeSellLikes is running that gives away 1,000 likes to anybody who writes about their website. We wanted to make it clear that we did not know about this deal nor do we have any intention of taking them up on their offer... although the irony did make us chuckle.
I had a really great Christmas.
I asked Santa for several things, among which were pink slippers, pajamas with the bear from the movie “Ted” on them, a new cell phone case made out of big fake pearls, and a mini-vacuum to suck up all the sunflower seeds that accumulate around my desk while I work. Yes, I am a seeder.
I was a reasonably good girl this past year. I suppose it all depends on one’s definition of “good,” but I always did my best and tried to stand up for what was right in the world and only got heavily intoxicated a few times and paid for the person behind me in line at Starbucks as much as possible, so all in all, I figured I was on the “Nice List.”
Want to get more likes on Instagram? Make sure your images are predominantly blue, spaciously cropped, bright and mildly desaturated.
For a fleeting, wonderful moment, it seemed that all of our Instagram popularity dreams were coming true. Released two days ago, the app Firegram used some automatic magic to get your photos way more attention than they would ever have gotten on their own. When Roi Carthy of TechCrunch tried it out on one of his photos he got a whopping 56 likes (%1500 increase) in no time.
Alas, if it seems too good to be true, that's because it wasn't meant to last. As of now the app has been "discovered" by Instagram and denied access to its API -- no likes for you.
If the concept of spending real money on a like, comment or follower on Instagram seems downright strange to you, then join the club. But a couple of new websites seem to be capitalizing on people who are willing to do just that. Both Buy Instagram Followers and Buy Instagram Likes sell packages of tens, hundreds and even thousands of likes, comments, and followers that desperate seekers of Instagram popularity can purchase given they've got enough dough to spend.