It looks like Instagram is undergoing a small design change. The change will allow only those users who share a post, to see the number of likes it receives. For everyone else, the likes/hearts count will be hidden. Instagram’s motivation behind this change is that it wants your followers to focus on what you share rather than the number of likes you get.
The change will definitely be helpful in many ways. It will reduce the sense of competition and envy among users who believe in likes being a standard of how good their content is. Moreover, users will not be able to compare their like counts with others and this will eventually lead them to focus more on posting quality content that their followers enjoy rather than producing something merely to get “double taps” and deleting it if it doesn’t rack up as many likes as they were expecting it to. Even the Story feature had a motivation of getting rid of the popularity pressure, behind its creation.
Jane Manchun Wong, apps researcher who has uncovered countless “in-testing” features before, has Tweeted about the new design change too after she spotted a change in the Android code of Instagram. Wong also shared a few screenshots of the new design in working.
The screenshots show that the Instagram feed post doesn’t include a Like count, but still has a number of names and pictures of the people who have liked a post. Users will be notified about no one else being able to see the likes on their post.
According to an Instagram spokesperson, the feature is not being tested currently but reducing pressure has always been a priority for Instagram.
Meanwhile, it looks like the media sharing service has no intentions to hide follower counts, which can equally create a sense of competition among users but is helpful for the marketers and advertisers in reaching out to exceptional content creators and influencers. Moreover, when (and if) the like count gets hidden, the sole focus would be on the number of followers and comments. However, it should be noted that Like counts (even if hidden) will still play a major factor in the feed’s ranking algorithm.
Thus, this update can surely bring back the good ol’ days when content creators posted for sharing creativity and art, rather than participating in a “Who is more popular?” battle.
The change will definitely be helpful in many ways. It will reduce the sense of competition and envy among users who believe in likes being a standard of how good their content is. Moreover, users will not be able to compare their like counts with others and this will eventually lead them to focus more on posting quality content that their followers enjoy rather than producing something merely to get “double taps” and deleting it if it doesn’t rack up as many likes as they were expecting it to. Even the Story feature had a motivation of getting rid of the popularity pressure, behind its creation.
Jane Manchun Wong, apps researcher who has uncovered countless “in-testing” features before, has Tweeted about the new design change too after she spotted a change in the Android code of Instagram. Wong also shared a few screenshots of the new design in working.
Instagram is testing hiding like count from audiences,— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) April 18, 2019
as stated in the app: "We want your followers to focus on what you share, not how many likes your posts get" pic.twitter.com/MN7woHowVN
The screenshots show that the Instagram feed post doesn’t include a Like count, but still has a number of names and pictures of the people who have liked a post. Users will be notified about no one else being able to see the likes on their post.
According to an Instagram spokesperson, the feature is not being tested currently but reducing pressure has always been a priority for Instagram.
Meanwhile, it looks like the media sharing service has no intentions to hide follower counts, which can equally create a sense of competition among users but is helpful for the marketers and advertisers in reaching out to exceptional content creators and influencers. Moreover, when (and if) the like count gets hidden, the sole focus would be on the number of followers and comments. However, it should be noted that Like counts (even if hidden) will still play a major factor in the feed’s ranking algorithm.
Thus, this update can surely bring back the good ol’ days when content creators posted for sharing creativity and art, rather than participating in a “Who is more popular?” battle.
