Instagram Wants Users To ‘Feel Good’, Introduces Option To Disable Likes, Views

After about two years of exploring the option of hiding the number of likes on posts, Instagram has finally introduced the feature.

The app will now allow its users to hide the likes and views on each post. The feature will, however, remain optional to all users as they will have to enable the obscured likes and views in their settings.

Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has been testing the feature in several countries since 2019.

Once users update the app, they can decide to remove the likes and views counts from their own posts as well as from other users’ posts on their feeds. Users who enable this feature would still be able to see who interacted with their posts, but it would entail a few extra steps.

The aim is to “depressurize people’s experience” on the platform, the social media giant said.

Instagram boss, Adam Mosseri, said the company introduced the feature to make “people feel good about the time they spend” on the platform.

Mosseri said, “I do think there’s more to do in this space,” adding that, “The more we can give people the ability to shape Instagram and Facebook into what’s good for them, the better.”

To engage the feature, users would have to upgrade the Instagram app on their phones or download it, then tap the three dots at the top right corner of any post, then click “Hide Like count” and it’s done.

Where it used to display the number of likes per post, it will now show “Liked by (an account) and others.