It's been in testing for a while, and has even been implemented as the only display option in some regions. But today, Instagram has announced the next stage of its experiments in hiding like counts on posts, with all Facebook and Instagram users soon set to be able to choose whether or not they display like counts on each of their updates.
As explained by Instagram:
"You may have noticed that we’ve been testing hiding like counts on Instagram for a while. Today, we’re announcing that everyone on Instagram and Facebook will now have the option to hide their public like counts, so they can decide what works for them."
Here's how the process will look on Facebook:
Instagram first started testing hidden like counts with some users back in 2019, before expanding it to selected regions over time. Then COVID-19 happened, and the project was shelved for most of last year, but recently, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri explained that it was back on the agenda, as the company sought the best way forward to provide an optimal user experience.
That's now lead to this next development, giving people who want to share like counts the option to do so, while others can leave things as they are, and always have been, with no impact on their process.
"We tested hiding like counts to see if it might depressurize people’s experience on Instagram. What we heard from people and experts was that not seeing like counts was beneficial for some, and annoying to others, particularly because people use like counts to get a sense for what’s trending or popular, so we’re giving you the choice."
'Depressurizing' the experience is a term that the platform has used repeatedly in describing this experiment, with the idea being that if you take away public like counts, you can reduce some of the performance pressure of the platform, and the competitive nature of Instagram engagement.
Incentivizing engagement - or incentivizing the right kinds of engagement - has become a more significant concern for social platforms of late, with the original focus metrics like Likes and followers now being seen by some as potentially harmful, and not conducive to a system that should be framed around enhancing social connection, not gamifying perceived popularity.
Back in 2018, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey explained that he now felt that they'd gone the wrong way in focusing on Like and follower counts on that platform, and that he, ideally, would seek to now de-emphasize these metrics, where possible, as they no longer reflected the right focus for social media engagement.
