By Instagram is hiding like counts as a test around the world and many fear that it will become a permanent feature. For marketers who rely on Influencer Marketing, this is an especially troubling move as it will make it more difficult to find influencers that drive actual engagements on their posts. Now a new Chrome Extension promises to make it easier to see the likes on Instagram posts where they have been hidden.
The extension is called “The Return of the Likes” and here’s how to use it.
1. Start by going to the Chrome Extension store and searching for “The Return of the Likes” or go to this URL: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/the-return-of-the-likes/djfggogjickolkmoijohpgmojangelni
2. Once you click on the button “add to chrome” you should see a popup message like this one. Click on “Add extension” to install the extension into your browser.
3. When installed the extension adds a small icon to your Chrome browser in the top-right next to the URL bar.
That’s all you need to do to get the extension working and showing like counts and comment counts in Instagram. You can now accurately determine how well an influencer’s audience responds to their posts.
Unfortunately this only works on desktop and doesn’t work on mobile versions of Chrome. It also won’t work to show the like counts inside of your Instagram app.
Here’s an example of what it looks like when you’re done.
This is the most recent 3 posts made by the Dallas Mavericks’ Instagram account with like counts hidden.
And here are those same 3 posts after the installation of The Return of the Likes Chrome extension
The data is 100% accurate and appears it might be coming from Instagram’s API. If that is the case then expect this extension to start charging at least a modest fee at some point in the future.