What was more of a private beta till now — a test wherein Instagram is hiding like counts on users’ photos — has now been rolled out as a global test. Instagram has confirmed, that it is testing a tweak to its platform, wherein it will hide the overall like counts on a particular photograph.
So are those days, when instagrammers could be seen competing on who got more likes, gone ? Well, not really, at least until the feature is under testing. There is still time for test results to come out, post which Instagram would decide whether to roll out the feature publicly.
Instagram began hiding Likes in April in Canada, then brought the test to Ireland, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand in July. The company said last week the test would expand to the U.S., but now it’s running everywhere to a small percentage of users in each country. In a tweet, Instagram confirmed the global roll out, and said that the tests are still ongoing. Feedback so far has been positive, but nothing to act on right now, since this is a ‘fundamental’ change to the overall experience.
Starting today, we’re expanding our test of private like counts globally. If you’re in the test, you’ll no longer see the total number of likes and views on photos and videos posted to Feed unless they’re your own. pic.twitter.com/DztSH0xiq2
— Instagram (@instagram) November 14, 2019
Interestingly, this feature may not directly apply to content creators, who run businesses based on the number of likes they get on their posts. Instagram says that it is aware of the same and that it is ‘actively thinking’ through ways for creators to communicate value to their partners.
