MANILA, Philippines – Instagram may be de-emphasizing follower counts as it seeks to redesign profile pages.

Instead of having the follower count right in the middle in the top portion, the follower count appears to have been moved below the user’s profile picture in a smaller font. 

Instagram didn’t specifically highlight the change, only saying that they hope to “make profiles easier and cleaner to use,” and “more easily connect with the people you care about.” 

De-emphasizing follower count, however, would mirror something that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said back when he appeared at a US congressional hearing in September. “We must ask the question: ‘What is Twitter incentivizing people to do, and why?'” Dorsey said. “We need to question the fundamental incentives that are in our product today.” Some time after, as The Verge notes, Twitter’s iOS app started showing the follower count in a smaller font.

The message to users: don’t focus exclusively on follower count. It’s a small change that may incentivize people less to push for social media fame by applying various tactics just to boost follower count. 

Instagram may be looking to do the same with the redesign. 

Here are some of the other changes: 

• The icons for the grid, posts, and tagged photos have been removed and replaced with text, including a new IGTV tab. 
• Business accounts have a new “Shop” tab as well as “Call,” “Email,” “Directions,” and “Start Order”
• “Follow” and “Message” have been emphasized with big rectangular buttons as opposed to the smaller ones in the old design
• You’ll be able to see mutual followers in its own tab when checking a certain person’s followers

The photo and video grid will not be changed. 

Got a comment? Let Instagram know as they said they’ll be considering user feedback as they continue to experiment.

“We’ve been working on these changes and will test them in phases and different combinations with our community over the next several weeks. We’ll continue to experiment and update the experience as we learn from your feedback,” Instagram said. – Rappler.com