Over the last few months, Instagram has been testing a new feature on its app that hides likes from the audience. When a user posts an image or a video on the platform he or she will still be able to see the number of likes and views.
The social media platform wants users to focus on the content that people share, and not the number of likes or views. This feature was being tested in a closed group, but Instagram brought it to the US and other countries a few weeks ago. And now, it has started to test it across the world.
Instagram announced in a Tweet that it has seen a positive response from the initial stage of testing and is now ready to test the feature around the globe. If you're part of the test group, then you will no longer see likes and video views on posts shared by others.
You will instead see a list of likes. Even your own photos will not show the number of likes below the post. However, users can see the total number of likes once they tap on the Likes indicator. That's all well and good, but not everyone is happy with this move from Instagram.
After Instagram made the announcement on Twitter, it did not go down well with thousands of users as they stated that they would like to see the likes. The Facebook-owned company also tweeted that likes and view counts are important for some users such as influencers with sponsorships. The company is currently thinking of new ways to help creators show their value to the sponsors. Previously, the tests went live in New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Italy, and Japan.
The social media platform knows that removing likes and view counts is a big change for users. It stated that the tests are being performed to learn more from the community. While it is nice to see that Instagram is trying to make the content of a post more relevant, it would be better if the user had control over hiding the likes. Perhaps Instagram should add a button to hide or reveal the likes and view counts.
