Starting next week Instagram will be hiding total like counts per post in the United States to test out how people will respond.
The news was announced by Adam Mosseri, Chief of Instagram, on Friday at a conference in San Francisco. Only some parts of the US will be testing out this update, but not all of them at once.
“We have to see how it affects how people feel about the platform, how it affects how they use the platform, how it affects the creator eco-system, but I’ve been spending a lot of time on this personally.” Mosseri said.
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
In May, Canada began testing this update and by the time July came around, seven other countries were testing it. Thhis includes Australie, Brazl, Ireland, Italy, Japan, and New Zealand.
While the total number of likes is hidden from followers, the user can still see the total count by clicking the “and others” option. Instagram has yet to publish how this has affected the platform based on the data testing these past five months.
To Adam Mosseri, the test isn’t about affecting users’ engagement on purpose but it is an initative to make the platform a more positive space for people.
“It’s about young people – the idea is to try and depressurize Instagram, make it less of a competition, give people more space to focus on connecting with people that they love, things that inspire them,” Mosseri said.
For the time being, only the US joined the list of countries testing this update and there is no new of it becoming worldwide any time soon.
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Image credit: Shutterstock.