Facebook and Instagram now let you hide like counts on posts: How to do it and all you need to know
In a recent development by the social media giant Facebook, the app along with Instagram will now allow users to hide their like counts. The testing for the feature has been going on for a long time and now has finally been rolled out for users as an opt-in experience. This means that people on both platforms- Instagram and Facebook can now disable the likes and others in their account will not be able to see how many people have liked their posts.
The move comes in after testing as the pressure on social media platforms built to make some changes. According to a 2017 study by the Royal Society for Public Health UK, it was found that these social media apps made a detrimental impact on the mental health of young people and their wellbeing. Following this, many experts opined that the company should consider removing or making changes to like buttons or counts that may result in reduction of anxiety as well as social pressures for young Instagram and Facebook users.
An Instagram spokesperson has highlighted that many tests were run by the company to check if the changes would help in reducing pressure. While hiding the likes turned out to be beneficial for some users, it did not help others as some would prefer to understand what content is trending. Therefore, the company decided to give a choice to users. Now, all users will get an option to hide all likes on the posts that appear in the feed. This has been done for both the apps.
How to hide like counts on Facebook
- Similar to Instagram, Facebook has a three-line icon in the bottom right corner of the app where the Settings option is available.
- There users can select Privacy options and go to the News Feed Settings.
- From here, users can choose what to do with reaction counts and turn it off for their posts and others as well.
- Open Instagram profile and select the three-line icon that appears on the top right corner.
- There, an option of Settings will be available and opening that will lead to Privacy settings.
- After this, Posts options will appear from where users can access the Like and View Counts option.
- These likes and like counts on the posts can be done on a per-post basis or for every post.
- Even while sharing a new post, an option for Advanced Settings will appear at the bottom of the screen that will allow users to hide like and view counts for the post.
How to hide like counts on Facebook
- Similar to Instagram, Facebook has a three-line icon in the bottom right corner of the app where the Settings option is available.
- There users can select Privacy options and go to the News Feed Settings.
- From here, users can choose what to do with reaction counts and turn it off for their posts and others as well.
It is to note that the option for users to access this feature will come to Facebook in coming weeks.
Source: Financial Express