Instagram is testing a new format for post metrics, which would show both share and comment counts, in addition to Likes (if you have them switched on) on every update in-stream.
The new format would include new counters of comments and shares, giving further context as to how people are interacting with the post at a glance.
They are taking a much stronger role as a share medium since user engagement behaviors have shifted towards more secluded interaction, rather than a public posting.
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri explained last July:
Friends post much more to stories and send much more DMs than they post to Feed. In case you want to make sure you never miss a feed post from a friend, add them to your favorites, and they'll show up at the top.
That's become a major driver for the app, and here, it's only reasonable to make greater attention to share counts, so users focus on this particular action.
Perhaps, by prompting this metric in their minds, that'd nudge more of them to act in similar ways as well, a form of peer pressure/FOMO methodology, as in "everybody else is sharing this with their friends too maybe you should as well".
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For instance, reply counts might get more people checking out what's being said, and it would likely encourage more interaction based on each update.
The new indicators probably don't have much to do with any big shift in user behaviors, but then again those lower post metrics were influential enough for Instagram to remove Like counts entirely as part of various experiments back in 2021.
The logic, at least back then, was that Like counts sometimes ended up putting too much focus on the wrong aspects, with teen users, in particular, noting that Like counts became a tool for negative comparison, which led, at times, to harmful impacts.
As Instagram chief Adam Mosseri noted at the time:
We don't want Instagram to be such a competition. We want it to be a place where people spend more of their energy connecting with the people that they love and the things that they care about.
Not quite sure how more comparative metrics would fit that same ethos, but perhaps Instagram might just be looking at the recent changes in user behavior as enough to include more engagement data without all of the negative concerns.
Or it might just be more likely to actually drive engagement even if it does become a competitive element.
It appears Instagram is at least throwing a few things against the wall and seeing what sticks, as quite a number of users are saying the new format is showing up in their version of the app.
We reached out to Instagram for more information on the test, and we'll update this post if/when we hear back.