Instagram recently announced that it was expanding the test globally. Previously, the test was only limited to seven countries.
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Instagram began hiding Likes in April in Canada and then brought the test to Ireland, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand in July. Facebook started a similar experiment in Australia in September.
Instagram said last week the test would expand to the US, but now it’s running everywhere to a small percentage of users in each country.
If your account is included in the test, you won’t be able to see like counts on other peoples’ posts, but you will be able to see them on your own, according to a tweet from Instagram.
This is how the tests have worked in other countries. The tweet included a notice that test participants will see in the app:
Though this seems like a good move to de-incentivize Instagram users from making posts designed only to garner likes, the like counts are important for some users as a way to prove the value of their posts to advertisers or potential partners.
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Instagram did acknowledge this in another tweet by saying that it is “actively” considering other ways creators can “communicate value to their partners.”
While Facebook is credited for inventing the Like button, it’s Instagram that institutionalized the red heart icon that Twitter eventually adopted, and codified public approval into a concentrated dopamine hit.
Instagram turning against Like counts could start a larger shift in the social media industry towards prioritizing more qualitative enjoyment of sharing, instead of obsessing over the quantification of validation.
