Likes are just about digital gold on social media. And yet Instagram seems to consider hiding the ‘hearts’ from now on. In an experimental redesign of the app, the exact number of likes among messages would no longer be visible. It is only a “prototype”, reports Instagram.

“We want your followers to focus on what you share, not how many likes you get,” says a screenshot shared by Jane Manchun Wong. Wong specializes in parsing apps and has already discovered hundreds of features before they were launched.

“During the test, only the person who shared a post will see the total number of likes,” it sounds.

Instagram is testing hiding like count from audiences,



as stated in the app: "We want your followers to focus on what you share, not how many likes your posts get" pic.twitter.com/MN7woHowVN — Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) April 18, 2019

In the experimental version of the app, therefore, no number is shown that indicates how many users like the photo. Users still see some names of the ‘likers’, but only the owner of the post knows exactly how many hearts the message has scored.

Busy

It is not certain whether the adjustment will ever actually be rolled out. Instagram confirmed to TechCrunch that it is an “internal prototype” that is not yet available to the general public. “We are not testing this yet, but we are always thinking about ways to relieve pressure on Instagram.”

For many users, the number of hearts is proof of how good or bad their posts are. Some users delete their post as soon as they notice that there are not enough likes. By hiding the number of likes, part of that pressure is removed, Instagram suggests.