News

Check your Instagram, the company is now testing hiding likes in the US

I’m ok with this.

by
Josiah Motley
November 11, 2019

Image: Unsplash

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Announced at WIRED25, Instagram will begin testing its hidden like counters in the US this week.

The feature is not completely new, having been tested in places like Canada and Australia for over 6 months, and has been met with mixed reactions from users.

Instagram will test hiding likes in the US starting this week

Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, made the announcement during Wired25 and also went to Twitter to break the news.

https://twitter.com/mosseri/status/1192984329091043328

Users that are a part of the test (I checked this morning, I’m not) will be unable to see like counts but can still go into one of their pictures to see how many likes they received on a post.

During the panel at Wired25, Mosseri notes that, “It’s about young people. The idea is to try to ‘depressurize’ Instagram, make it less of a competition and give people more space to focus on connecting with people that they love, things that inspire them.”

Personally, I’m all for it, but a bunch of Twitter accounts with under 100 followers really seem to hate the idea. Even @Jack weighed-in on the conversation, praising Instagram for the move.

What do you think? Would you like to see like counts hidden for everyone? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.