Instagram to test hiding public like counts on posts

A number of people are willing to go to great extents to get likes on social media. This holds particularly true for Facebook-owned photo-sharing app Instagram. But now, it seems like the platform itself is going to change that. At the F8 developer conference, Instagram has announced that it will begin testing a new feature that will hide users’ public like counts from their posts.

The test will begin later this week, and initially, it will only be limited to Canada. Instagram has specified that likes will be hidden from the Feed, permalinked pages as well as on profiles. The photo-sharing app has said that it wants its followers to “focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get.”

With this change being tested, only the person who owns the account will be able to see how many likes a particular Instagram post has got.

While this is the first time that Instagram has openly acknowledged working on the feature, reports about it have surfaced online in the past too. Earlier this mode, code hunter Jane Wong had posted screenshots of the feature. Back then, the photo-sharing app had denied when asked if this feature was being tested.

A spokesperson from Instagram had cleared the air when the screenshots surfaced saying, “We’re not testing this at the moment, but exploring ways to reduce pressure on Instagram is something we’re always thinking about.”

But now we know that the company wanted to make this announcement during the F8 developers’ conference.

As of now, it is not clear whether this feature will be rolled out to other regions globally. However, it is bound to completely change the way people use the app.

While likes can boost people’s mood and morale, they can also do the exact opposite if the content that has been posted doesn’t do well. And then, people do all sorts of things to get likes on the app.

This has particularly gone up with the increasing number of micro-influencers on Instagram. To get more number of likes, people have started posting photos that are doctored with or content with too much nudity.

These posts may manage to get ‘Likes’ on the photo-sharing platform, but that does not make them interesting. By removing the concept of ‘Likes’ publically from its platform, the company may be looking to put an end to content like this.

This step will also lead to people posting only the content that they actually want to share with their followers and not anything for the sake of more ‘Likes’.