Facebook and Instagram have been testing an option to hide like counts on posts for quite some time, and they finally made things official. These social media platforms are leaving it up to you to decide if you want to share your likes with the world, in an attempt to reduce the pressure on users.
In an official statement announcing this shift, Instagram’s representatives explained they tasted if hiding like counts to might depressurize people’s experience, and came to different results. “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.”
Each Instagram and Facebook user can now decide what works for them and choose if they want to see the number of likes on their own and other users’ posts. Instagram is hoping this innovation will put focus on the content, empower people, build self-awareness and shape a more positive experience.
If you want to hide your likes, simply head to Settings and look for the new Posts section. If you tick this option, it will apply to all the posts on your feed, but you can also opt for hiding likes on individual posts, by selecting the three dots in the upper right corner above a post and finding the option “hide like count”.
