Would we feel less envious, shameful and competitive if Instagram didn’t tell us how many Likes a post received? That’s the idea behind Instagram now hiding Like counts from both a post’s viewers as part of an experiment in Canada. A post’s creator can still open the Likers window to see the names of everyone who hearted their post. Instagram has also recently redesigned the profile to make follower count much less prominent, the app’s head Adam Mosseri says. Even though Like totals would still impact how the algorithm ranks a post in the feed, if rolled out, the change would refocus Instagram on self-expression instead of being a popularity contest. Users might be less likely to delete a photo or video because it didn’t get enough Likes, or resort to their Finsta account to post something authentic but less “perfect.” It could make us less likely to envy-spiral because we wouldn’t see friends or influencers getting more Likes than us. And people might be more willing to post what truly represents their complicated identities because they’re not battling for the biggest Like count. “Later this week, we’re running a test in Canada that removes the total number of likes on photos and video views in Feed, Permalink pages and Profile,” an Instagram spokesperson tells TechCrunch. “We are testing this because we want your followers to focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get.” The small percentage of Canadian users in the test will see a notice atop their feed warning them of “a change to how you see Likes.” The announcement came alongside a slew of new product debuts at Facebook’s F8 conference. One big concern, though, is that influencers often get discovered for paid promotions or have their sponsored content measured by public Like counts or a screenshot of their Liker list. “We understand that this is important for many creators, and while this test is in exploratory stages, we are thinking through ways for them to communicate value to their brand partners,” an Instagram spokesperson tells TechCrunch. TechCrunch first reported two weeks ago that Instagram had prototyped hiding public Like counts, as spotted by Jane Manchun Wong. The company confirmed the feature had been built but not tested in the wild. The news immediately set off a wave of commentary from users. Many, while initially shocked, thought it would make Instagram usage healthier and cutback on some of the toxic anxiety produced by staring at the little numbers. So why test in Canada? “Canadians are highly social and tech savvy, with over 24 million people connecting across our family of apps each month. We wanted to test this with a digitally savvy audience that has a thriving community on Instagram,” a company spokesperson told us. Leading The Fight Against Bullying On stage at F8, Mosseri announced that Instagram doesn’t just want to stop bullying, but lead the Internet’s battle against it. To that end, he announced several new tests of features Instagram hopes will make the app less toxic and hateful. A new “nudge” feature will warn users if they’re about to comment something hurtful. The test stops short of censorship while still addressing bullying before it happens. “Away Mode” will encourage users to take a break from Instagram at intense times in their life, like moving to a new school. They don’t have to delete their account, but can still get a break from constant notifications and concerns about how they look. “Manage Interactions” will allow users to set limits on how certain people interact with them without having to block them completely. Maybe you don’t want someone to be able to comment on your posts, but still Like them. Or you’re cool with them seeing your photos but don’t want to get DMs from them. If these features succeed at promoting digital well-being, Instagram will likely roll them out to everyone. It’s reassuring to see Instagram adding new well-being features after the departure of founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Systrom in particular had been a big proponent of reducing envy and inauthenticity on social media, which was part of the impetus for launching Instagram Stories, where users could share unpolished looks at their lives. Before he left in September, Instagram rolled out its Your Activity dashboard showing the average time you spent per day on the app, plus a “You’re All Caught Up” warning that tells users they’ve seen all recent feed posts and can stop scrolling. A 2013 study by Krasnova et al. discovered that 20 percent of envy-causing situations that experiment participants experienced happened on Facebook. They also determined that Facebook causes toxic envy, noting that “intensity of passive following is likely to reduce users’ life satisfaction in the long-run, as it triggers upward social comparison and invidious emotions.” Instagram, with its focus on imagery and manicured looks at our lives, might cause even more envy. Hiding Likes would be a strong step toward us judging ourselves less. Click below to check out all of TechCrunch’s Facebook conference coverage from today: Correction: Instagram originally told us a post’s creator couldn’t see its Like count either, but now tells us the count will only be hidden from viewers.<doc-sep>Facebook-owned Instagram is going to test hiding "like" counts this week as a way to make "a less pressurized environment" on the app, Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri announced on Tuesday. "We want people to worry a little bit less about how many likes they're getting on Instagram and spend a bit more time connecting with the people that they care about," Mosseri said during the keynote of F8, Facebook's annual software developer conference in San Jose, California. Under the test, the number of people who liked a post will no longer be shown. Users will be able to look at who liked their own post, but they won't be able to see how many likes someone else's post got unless they manually count them. A post's creator will be able to see their own like counts if they choose to do so, Mosseri said. "We don't want Instagram to feel like a competition," he said. The hidden like count test announcement comes as Instagram expands its efforts to combat online bullying, a problem that plagues many of the app's younger users. Mosseri also spoke about other efforts the service is considering to combat bullying, such a feature that would nudge users if they are about to post an aggressive comment. "What we aspire to do is lead the fight against online bullying," Mosseri said. WATCH: Here's how to see which apps have access to your Facebook data — and cut them off<doc-sep>Imagine an Instagram where no one can see how many followers or likes you have. Now imagine being an influencer who suddenly has those metrics—the exact numbers you use to cement your influencer status—hidden to the public. Fast Company reported earlier today that, unfortunately for the Olivia Jades of the world, Instagram is indeed experimenting with hiding likes. Researcher Jane Manchun Wong discovered the development and shared a screenshot on Twitter. Instagram confirmed to TechCrunch that the design is an internal prototype not visible to the public yet. "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,'" Wong wrote under her shots of how it'd look. Obviously responses on Twitter were mixed. Some people loved it because it would take the pressure off of curating feeds for likes, and other people were worried about how it would affect the business of influencers. In the screenshot, the number of likes a post gets would only be visible to the user who posted it. Everyone else will just see one username of someone who liked the post accompanied by "and others." This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. 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 An Instagram spokesperson told TechCrunch that “we’re not testing this at the moment, but exploring ways to reduce pressure on Instagram is something we’re always thinking about.” The feature would likely be Instagram's way of addressing how validation culture (seeking a certain number of likes for posts or certain number of followers along with comparing your curated feed to other people's perfectly curated feeds) has been shown to hurt mental health and self-esteem. So, how would keeping likes private really wreck an Instagram influencer's career? By hiding their engagement on posts, influencers could find it harder to get deals with businesses for sponsored content. Those companies like to see engagement on content before tapping an influencer to rep their product. It would also make it near impossible for users to figure out which posts are popular on the platform, and therefore, influential. This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. Alyssa Bailey News and Strategy Editor Alyssa Bailey is the news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io<doc-sep>
Anadolu Agency / Getty Images Instagram will test hiding the like count from photos, and view counts from videos, in an effort to get users to pay attention to the content itself and not their associated engagement metrics, the Facebook-owned app announced Tuesday. In the test, followers won’t see total likes on photos, or views counts on videos, in their Instagram feeds or when visiting a user’s profile. The account owner will still be able to access their own metrics and see the total likes or view counts for a specific post, although they will need to tap through a post to view those metrics. Instagram said that the “private likes” test would begin later this week for users in Canada at F8, Facebook’s annual developers conference. Critics of social media companies have said that the public emphasis of such metrics as likes incentivizes negative behavior on platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, leading users to chase engagement to measure their self-worth. Many social media companies use algorithms that take into account a post’s likes or view counts, among other metrics, to determine how to distribute that content to other users. "We do hear people worry about how many like counts they get." Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri told BuzzFeed News that the test wasn’t about incentivizing specific behavior but “about creating a less pressurized environment where people feel comfortable expressing themselves” and focus less on like counts. “We do hear people worry about how many like counts they get,” he said. Likes can also be an inaccurate way of measuring genuine engagement from users. There are online services where Instagram users can buy likes or comments, while BuzzFeed News has shown that real people have turned their own accounts into bots to exploit and benefit from mutual engagement. Mosseri said he wasn’t taking the full removal of like counts or video views “off the table” in the future and noted that he was hoping to learn from this first test. He also said he would have to think about hiding metrics in stories, one of Instagram’s most popular features, in the future. Stories — ephemeral photos and videos that are broadcast to a user’s followers or certain groups — allow a post’s author to see how many people viewed that post. (It does not display story view counts to followers.) “Stories was, in part, the inspiration for this test,” Mosseri said. Jane Manchun Wong, a technology blogger who reverse engineers popular apps to uncover unreleased features, first spotted the test earlier this month in an internal employee-only prototype. Instagram Instagram’s test follows a similar one by Twitter. In an experimental prototype app called twttr, like and retweet counts are hidden in a tweet’s replies as part of the company’s efforts to improve how people understand a conversation. Users must tap on each reply to see like and retweet figures. As a follower, without seeing a like count, “I don’t have this piece of information to help me gauge whether this is a good reply I should read,” said Twitter senior product designer Lisa Ding in explaining the ‘twttr’ experiment to BuzzFeed News. “Does that make you read more? How does that change the way you interact in a conversation? That’s super interesting [to us].” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has spoken openly about potentially removing other metrics, like follower counts, as well. “The question we're now asking is, is that necessarily the right incentive? Is the number of followers you have really a proxy for how much you contribute to Twitter and this digital public square?" Dorsey said in a September 2018 interview with Inc. Mosseri said he was unaware of Twitter's beta tests that involve hiding engagement figures. "Is removing engagement enough? Is that the only solution? Probably not."