JAKARTA – Instagram is testing a new feature that allows users to hide the number of ‘likes’ on their own or someone else’s posts. This option is presented as a form of experimentation by removing the ‘Like’ icon that used to be a benchmark of one’s popularity.
“In 2019, we started hiding ‘likes’ from a small group of people, in order to understand whether this move alleviates pressure by uploading content to Instagram,” said a Facebook spokesperson, quoted by TechCrunch on Friday, April 16. .
The initial idea of hiding the number of ‘likes’ was to reduce anxiety and embarrassment if the content uploaded to Instagram did not get many ‘likes’ that made users seem less popular. These problems are mainly faced by young Instagram users.
Not even some influencers or celebrities who feel this will affect their chances of working with brands because their level of engagement cannot be seen publicly. While they can still see the number of ‘Likes; in your private posts.
This latest test is only accessible to a small percentage of users worldwide. With the latter system, users can choose three options to show or hide the number of ‘likes’, that is, choose to hide in their own posts, or continue to use the current system.
Instagram did not disclose how long the trial will take and when it will be more widely deployed. Similar features will also be tested for Facebook, but it is not yet known if the mechanisms are the same or different.
“We will learn from the new tests this time and we will have more (information) to share soon,” he added.
In fact, this feature has been developed since 2019. Where some time ago Instagram users had experienced an incident that they could not see the number of ‘likes’ and later it was learned that the problem was caused by an error that so many users they accidentally participated in the testing of the new system.
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