Earlier this year, Instagram started testing hiding like counts on the app. The company started testing the feature in Canada in May and added six more countries, namely, Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand and Japan in July. Now, Instagram CEO, Adam Mosseri has confirmed that like counts will disappear for some users in the US starting next week. The latest development follows after Facebook said in September that it is dabbling with no longer making a public display of how many "likes" are racked up by posts.
Mosseri tweeted, "Heads up! We've been testing making likes private on Instagram in a number of countries this year. We're expanding those tests to include a small portion of people in the US next week. Looking forward to the feedback.”
It is said that social media use may influence mental health, including leading to depression and anxiety. Hence, hiding likes count from anyone other than the post creator, users might feel less anxious about the perceived popularity of their content.
It was also reported that Facebook started testing the same by hiding reactions. It was spotted by reverse engineering master Jane Manchun Wong. She found the code inside the Android app of Facebook that hides the amount of likes on a post from everyone but the poster.
“I observed that Facebook has recently begun prototyping this hidden like/reaction count feature in their Android app by reverse-engineering the app and playing with the code underneath,” Wong said in a blog post.
As of now, Instagram will be hiding like counts starting next week with the US users.