You Now Have Control Over Like Counts

In a recent blog post from Instagram, they have officially rolled out a tool to provide users the option to hide their public like counts, so they can decide what works for them. This has been in the making for almost two years. Users can also choose to hide like counts on their posts, so others cannot see how many likes a given post gets. 

Instagram announced previously that they have “tested hiding like counts to see if it might depressurize people’s experience.” Seeing like counts was beneficial for some, and annoying to others. Empathizing with users on the mental health front, as experts have raised concerns about anxiety build up and social pressures to young people is a step in the right direction. As social beings, we tend to gravitate toward social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram for validation, and experts in the mental health arena have seen there’s a lot of pressure around the feedback and likes we receive. 

You can customize this feature and choose: 

• To hide like counts on your feed when scrolling through IG

• Hide like counts on posts you share so people can’t see how many likes you get

This gives users flexibility to focus on the content of posts rather than the like counts. 

Instagram knows that user experience is different from the next person and that people’s needs are changing. Collaborating with mental health experts to better understand how to empower people, build self-awareness and shape a more positive experience on their platform is a commendable act from the social media giant. 

“We’re also funding more external research about people’s experiences on Instagram, and how we can improve our policies and products to support our community,” says Instagram. 

Kudos to Instagram for working on new ways to give people more choice and empowerment, so they feel good about the time they spend on the platform.