Instagram is Now Hiding Likes on Photos in More Countries; No Point Buying Likes And Views Anymore

Instagram is taking a step towards becoming a less complicated platform. The Facebook owned social network is now hiding the ‘likes’ and ‘views’ from the photos and videos that you share on the platform, in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan and New Zealand. This part of a test that attempts to simplify the activity of sharing photos and videos on the platform, without the pressure of having to rack up likes and views.

The feature that is being tested in these select countries at the moment hides the counters for likes and views on videos and photos in the Instagram Feed, Instagram on the web, and within user profiles in the app as seen by others. “We want your friends to focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get. You can still see your own likes by tapping on the list of people who've liked it, but your friends will not be able to see how many likes your post has received," says Instagram in an official statement. The social network confirms that they are trying to understand how these changes impact the user experience on the platform.

When Instagram had first rolled out this feature in Canada earlier this year, the company has said that the idea was to “focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get."

On Instagram, likes and views had become the sole way to place a value on a post. Over time, it became easier for users to simply buy likes and views to inflate the figure shown with their posts. Then there was the whole matter of how lack of engagement on a post a user shared had a larger impact on the person’s mental and emotional health. In June 2017, a study by the Royal Society for Public Health in the UK suggested that if a photo you shared didn’t get enough or expected likes, it had a detrimental impact on the person’s emotional and mental health. “Instagram draws young women to "compare themselves against unrealistic, largely curated, filtered and Photoshopped versions of reality," said Matt Keracher, author of the report, at the time.

The so-called influencers must be worried?