The feature was implemented to reduce social pressure.
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Last month, Instagram officially launched its ability hide “likes”, targeted towards giving users more control over their experience on the apps and reduce the pressure of social validation. Instagram creators have been under high pressure after recent engagement drops, and some of them looked for content validation in their like counts. With this feature, Instagram is trying to reduce pressure from the shoulders of the creators and promote original content on the platform.
Will engagement drop?
Recent studies show page engagement dropped in countries with likes hidden, such as Brazil and Australia. A reduction in likes can lead the Instagram algorithm to keep their content from getting on the explore page, even after posting quality content.
How can you hide likes on your posts?
To hide likes from your posts, you need to visit the post and then click “hide likes”, after which people won’t be able to see likes on your posts. In order to hide likes, you need to perform a similar function on all of your posts. There is no feature to hide likes on all your posts together. So if someone has more than 1000 posts, they need to go and disable likes on all of their posts.
Anyone can go to desktop mode and see your likes no matter if you choose to hide them or not. Hiding likes also reduces the need to buy fake likes on the platform, as now content creators can simply hide their likes.
Related: Instagram Is Hiding Likes. Here’s What It Means for Brands and Influencers.