Instagram has recently launched a new test to hide the Like counts on users’ posts, continuing with its experimental series with the app since 2019. The app will give the users three options: hide likes on others’ posts, turn off likes for their own posts, or keep the original experience. It is aimed to figure out what users really want. Facebook, following its sister app, may launch a similar test on its social network too. Instagram claimed that these experiments were temporarily paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The resources and endeavors were diverted to back certain other community causes except for some time in March 2021, where it accidentally hid Likes for some users due to a bug.
The experiment is set to roll out to a small portion of the users of the app. They’ll be able to choose posts’ likes you want to hide from everyone else. The existing option of keeping the Like counts visible will still be there as a response to its users when they criticized the app for flipping the feature “unintentionally” for many users last month.
Adam Monsseri, Instagram’s CEO, announced the news on Twitter. “Last year, we started hiding like counts for a small group of people to see if it lessens some pressure when posting to Instagram. Some found this helpful, and some still wanted to see like counts, in particular, to track what’s popular. So we’re testing a new option that lets you decide the experience that’s best for you — whether that’s choosing not to see like counts on anyone else’s posts, turning them off for your posts, or keeping the original experience”, he tweeted.
In subsequent tweets, he revealed that initially, Instagram would test this feature, but it will be introduced to Facebook in the coming days.
