Last month, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri confirmed that hiding like counts was soon to become optional. Now the feature is officially being rolled out for everyone, but there’s more. Not only Instagram is letting you hide or reveal like counts as you please, but you can now do it on Facebook, too.
Hidden like count was initially a test started back in 2019. Instagram rolled it out globally in November that year, but it was only available for some users. For example, I have it on my personal profile, whereas likes are visible and public on other profiles I manage. In addition, if the like counts were hidden, you weren’t able to make them show again.
From now on, you will be able to choose what works best for you. There are a few ways to hide Like counts on Instagram, and the company says that the same features are coming to Facebook in the next few weeks, too.
You can hide like counts on all posts in your feed, including your own posts. This way other people can’t see how many likes your posts get. “This way, if you like, you can focus on the photos and videos being shared, instead of how many likes posts get,” Facebook writes. You can enable or disable the feature in the new Posts section in Settings.
Alternatively, you can choose to hide like counts before sharing a post. You’re free to change your mind after the post goes live and turn this setting on or off. “People want more flexibility, so we thought it would be important to give people the option,” says Facebook.
The main idea of hiding like counts is to take the pressure off content creators and anyone else using Instagram. The test lasted for quite a long time, almost two years since it was rolled out in the first seven countries. Still, it seems that the feedback has been positive considering that the feature has been made available to everyone and extended to Facebook, too.
Judging from our survey and some conversations I’ve had with people, most Instagram users prefer like counts hidden. I myself was also happy to get this feature on my personal profile, and I’ll start applying it to my other profiles as well. Will you hide the like counts on your Instagram and Facebook or keep them public?
[via TechCrunch]
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