Soon you may no longer see how many “likes” other people’s photos and videos get on Instagram.
The social media giant is experimenting with hiding likes in seven countries to test what the change will do to user engagement. In the tests users could still see how many people liked their own posts, but they couldn’t tell how many people liked other people’s posts.
The experiment started in Canada, but today they’ll remove likes in Ireland, Japan, Australia, Italy, New Zealand and Brazil.
Instagram officials told TechCrunch that ultimately “[they] want your followers to focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get.”
Likes have become a controversial feature in modern social media platforms. Some critics say it makes sharing content an unhealthy competition and a popularity contest based on an artificial point system.
There’s no word yet on if “likes” will be removed in the U.S.
