UPDATE: This was a small glitch and the YouTube Studio app started updating the analytics for YouTube Posts starting again on April 20th, 2026. It is important to note that this glitch will likely happen again.
It is also interesting to think about why this glitch happened from a coding standpoint. For quite some time we have been adamant that Google is going after Instagram through YouTube Posts. The reason they have a fighting chance is the analytics and money. On Instagram, there is very little money to be made simply on views. There is a ton of money to be made on sponsor deals but Instagram does not have the ad network that Google/YouTube does.
Is it possible that YouTube is ramping up something big with YouTube Image Posts? Are they going to start pushing them out into more feeds. On very busy channels, Image Posts are getting less than 5% of the overall impressions and views through the YouTube Shorts Feed. Will this number inch closer to 10% or 15% in May and June of 2026?
We will continue to track and monitor YouTube Image posts. If you are not already posting Images to the YouTube Community tab, you are missing out on many impressions and, more importantly, more subscribers and viewers that want to see your content. When posting YouTube Image Posts in the early part of 2026, you will be differentiating your YouTube Channel and will likely benefit in the future. The same happened with YouTube Shorts back in late 2020.
On Thursday, April 16th, 2026 the data for YouTube Posts stopped populating in the YouTube Studio app. For the first 24 to 48 hours most assumed it was a glitch that would be fixed. We are now three (3) full business days later and there is still no data for YouTube Image posts from April 17th, 2026 onward.
We know YouTube has been “testing” Image Carousels in the YouTube Shorts Feed. We also know that these Image Posts are showing up in the realtime live data in the YouTube Studio App. While creators can see realtime data, there is no deeper dive into data by clicking on the title of the Image Post. When clicking on the title of a YouTube Short or Long Form form video, there is much more data to dig into.
Is this a sign that YouTube Image posts are not successful in the YouTube Shorts Feed? While we have found tremendous success with Image Posts, we have noticed that some of the bigger YouTube Channels are not finding such success.
In an example, we run a YouTube Channel that has about 10k subscribers and each Image Post receives between 1.5k and 2k likes. The 1.5k to 2k likes are coming on Image Posts with less than 5k impressions. The Masters Golf Tournament has over 650k subscribers and their Image Posts are averaging well below 5k likes. In fact, if you look at the Image Posts prior to Sunday, April 12th, the Masters YouTube Channel we receiving well under 2k likes per Image.
This data tells us that YouTube is starting to push more impressions and views to YouTube Image Posts but they recently cut off the analytical data. We believe they are going to push that data into another part of the YouTube Studio App and will allow creators to dig deeper into the data of the Image Posts. This will help creators move from Instagram to YouTube much more seamlessly.