Instagram to Test Hiding Likes in the US This Week

Instagram recently started testing a very interesting new idea: hiding likes. The change will essentially remove like counts from your posts, which is supposed to help Instagram be a healthier and safer place on the internet.

After testing the change in a couple of countries, Instagram CEO announced last Friday that the company will start testing hiding likes in the United States this week. The test will only be available to a small number of users in the US before it is expanded to the whole country. That means the US will join Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand in hiding like counts sometime this week.

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Instagram doesn’t completely hide who has liked your posts, though: people simply can’t see exactly how many likes your posts have gotten. You, as the poster of a picture or a video, will still be able to see how many likes your own posts have gotten. But you won’t be able to see the like counts on posts from other people and accounts.

WATCH: Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri announces that the platform will start hiding likes for US audiences starting next week. It's the latest step in Instagram’s quest to become the safest place on the internet. https://t.co/BGkMG57rdk #WIRED25 pic.twitter.com/WNTyAPVhaD

— WIRED (@WIRED) November 9, 2019

The change is quite important, and it will hopefully promote better mental health. People, especially young users, are often too obsessed with like counts that affect their mental health, and this change could potentially change that going forward.