Social media giant Instagram is testing a new dislike button for comments on the app. The news comes after many users noticed the latest feature for downvoting or disliking. It’s a great signal to show others that they didn’t like a comment or feel it might be irrelevant.
The feature is going to show up for both Reels as well as posts, the company shared.
Adam Mosseri mentioned through his latest post on Threads that this new offering will not display the total number of dislike votes a comment attained. Also, no other person will be aware of who disliked that comment either. But disliking will indeed count towards rankings for comments.
Mosseri says that the feature is designed to give users a private means to signal that they disapprove of a certain comment made on content published through Instagram. He also reiterated that this was just a test but it might be integrated soon depending on how the test is taken. It also might end up moving the most disliked comments lower down on the list. The head of Instagram also said that this might be a great way to make Instagram more friendly again.
We saw social media expert Alessandro Paluzzi publish on his account last month how the app was testing a similar feature after detecting it through reverse engineering. Now, the firm has made the news official. As per Meta, the test is designed to contribute towards a more meaningful ecosystem and bettering the quality of comments made on every post.
They are now working on ways to assist people gain more control of the in-app experience and what they want to see online. If you don’t think a certain comment is appropriate or you don’t feel about the context in which it’s made, you have the right to express that through this feature, Instagram’s spokesperson shared.
For now, the test is rolled out to include a very small group of users but with time, they are hoping for an expansion. We’ve already seen apps like Reddit include a downvote mechanism for its comments on posts. They use this system to sort all kinds of comments coming on, depending on how many likes and dislikes they get.
It’s clear that Meta seems to be moving in a similar direction but only time can tell if it’s as successful on Instagram as it is on Reddit. We’re just happy that there’s now going to be a way to show disapproval for mean and hate comments that simply don’t belong under a post for any reason. At least this way, users can be more mindful of what they are saying.
Image: @clb.grn / Threads
Read next: Meta Paused Discussions with Book Publishers on Licensing Deals to Supply AI Models with Training Data
The feature is going to show up for both Reels as well as posts, the company shared.
Adam Mosseri mentioned through his latest post on Threads that this new offering will not display the total number of dislike votes a comment attained. Also, no other person will be aware of who disliked that comment either. But disliking will indeed count towards rankings for comments.
Mosseri says that the feature is designed to give users a private means to signal that they disapprove of a certain comment made on content published through Instagram. He also reiterated that this was just a test but it might be integrated soon depending on how the test is taken. It also might end up moving the most disliked comments lower down on the list. The head of Instagram also said that this might be a great way to make Instagram more friendly again.
We saw social media expert Alessandro Paluzzi publish on his account last month how the app was testing a similar feature after detecting it through reverse engineering. Now, the firm has made the news official. As per Meta, the test is designed to contribute towards a more meaningful ecosystem and bettering the quality of comments made on every post.
They are now working on ways to assist people gain more control of the in-app experience and what they want to see online. If you don’t think a certain comment is appropriate or you don’t feel about the context in which it’s made, you have the right to express that through this feature, Instagram’s spokesperson shared.
For now, the test is rolled out to include a very small group of users but with time, they are hoping for an expansion. We’ve already seen apps like Reddit include a downvote mechanism for its comments on posts. They use this system to sort all kinds of comments coming on, depending on how many likes and dislikes they get.
It’s clear that Meta seems to be moving in a similar direction but only time can tell if it’s as successful on Instagram as it is on Reddit. We’re just happy that there’s now going to be a way to show disapproval for mean and hate comments that simply don’t belong under a post for any reason. At least this way, users can be more mindful of what they are saying.
Read next: Meta Paused Discussions with Book Publishers on Licensing Deals to Supply AI Models with Training Data
