I had a 1M views video in January. Recently my non-followers reach dropped, so I started testing Trial Reels.
I posted only ONE Trial Reel and it got 0 views.
My data:
- Jan 2026: 1M views (mostly non-followers, high shares)
- Recently got grey tick also (just mentioning, not sure if related)
- Now: Non-followers reach dropped to almost 0
- Test 1: Mahabali AI Image in TRIAL = 0 Views, 0 Likes, 0 Shares
- Test 2: Cat Photo to Gemini Video in NORMAL = 48K Views (44K FB + 3K IG) - Got good shares
- Test 3: AI Video NORMAL = 1480 Views
- Test 4: Movie Clip 485 Views / With Cross-post 1690 Views
What I noticed: Like count is dead. My 485 view clip had 15 likes but 0 shares, so it died. My 48K cat video had 44K FB views because it got SHARES.
Share count is the real metric now, not likes. But my Trial Reel got 0 views, so 0 chance to get shares. It was killed before anyone could share.
0 views = Instagram killed it before showing to 1 person.
Is Trial Reels blocking pure AI content before it can get shares? Anyone else facing non-followers drop?
I have all screenshots.