Facebook-owned photo and video sharing platform Instagram has started testing a new feature that will let users hide the likes count from their post. The feature will also let users choose whether they want to see likes count on other users’ posts or not, according to a report by TechCrunch website.
It is not the first time when Instagram is testing this feature. If you can recall, back in 2019, the company initially started testing the feature with a limited set of users in select regions. But, due to the coronavirus pandemic, they moved their focus on more important features.
Earlier the hide likes feature only allowed users to choose whether they want to show the like count to other users or not. Now, the company is giving users the option to choose whether they want to see and show the like counts.
TechCrunch report also mentions that Facebook will also test a similar feature for its own social media platform.
According to Instagram, the feature was originally aimed to reduce anxiety and embarrassment of users who often stress over the total number of likes on their posts. The company also mentioned that this kind of problem mostly exists with younger users.
In the feedback received from users, not all users agreed about the idea of hiding likes from the post. Most of the influencers and users who do branded content for their page and profile mentioned that the total number of likes help them keep track of their popular and trending content.
However, whether you like the idea or not, the feature is currently limited to a limited number of users on Instagram.
Also, the users which are selected for the test will see the option to hide likes.
