Instagrammers now given the choice to hide ‘like’ counts

In April 2019, Instagram announced that they were toying with the idea of removing the number of ‘likes’ from a post on the platform. While this was certainly a step in the right direction for those suffering from mental health issues, influencers were worried that brands wouldn’t be able to quantify the success of campaigns. Now, Instagram is letting users choose.

After conducting more tests, Instagram has revealed that they seem happy with the results of those tests and will give users the ability to hide like counts on all posts in a user’s feed, as well as on their own posts.

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Interestingly, the concept is scheduled to be implemented across Facebook over the coming months as well.

To turn off post like counts, Instagram users can go to the new Posts section in their settings to hide like counts on posts by other people in their feed. Users will also be given the chance to hide like counts before sharing a post, and this setting can be turned on and off.

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“We tested hiding like counts to see if it might depressurize people’s experience on Instagram. What we heard from people and experts was that not seeing like counts was beneficial for some, and annoying to others, particularly because people use like counts to get a sense for what’s trending or popular, so we’re giving you the choice,” Instagram said in a blog post this week. “Changing the way people view like counts is a big shift. We’ll continue working on new ways to give people more choice so that they feel good about the time they spend on our applications.”

The concept came about after Instagram started researching how to empower people, build self-awareness, and shape a more positive experience on the platform.

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Image courtesy: Instagram