Ever notice how some Instagram accounts you come across don’t show likes? Well apparently, that option has been in something of a beta stage for about two years. Starting today it’s official -- everyone can now hide likes on their IG posts.
And not only that, but you can block out the likes of others’ accounts, should the mere sight of more likes on your friend’s vacation post get more likes than your much more beautiful photos.
According to Engadget, the Instagram app will now allow all users to hide likes, though it’s keeping the feature optional, and users will need to enable the obscured like counts in their settings.
The update allows users to remove likes counts from their own posts, or hide likes on other users’ posts in their feeds. Users who choose to hide likes on their own photos will still be able to see who interacted with their posts, but it will take a few extra security steps to access the stats.
Facebook has tried a similar likes-hiding experiment, but that one didn’t give users the option to track likes, which caused the experiment to be a little confusing and unpopular for the most part. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri recently admitted to The Information that hiding likes was “polarizing” but that his “rationale has changed.”
The overall aim of the controversial likes-eliminating feature is related to both companies' attempts to be more sympathetic to the potential negative mental health effects from social media scoring, exacerbated by governmental investigation into such mental health effects after IG announced they would introduce an under-13 version of the app.
As also stated in the Engadget report, Instagram further plans to fund more independent outside research into its platform, including how it affects younger users.
The company is soliciting proposals from researchers and nonprofits to “help us better understand experiences on Instagram that may or may not contribute to the safety and health of our community.”
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