After Instagram started experimenting with hiding from the public the number of likes a post gets, we knew it was only a matter of time when its parent company will do the same. Well it seems that day has come as reliable tipster Jane Manchun Wong has spotted the social media giant prototyping a hidden like/reaction feature within the Android app. They may soon start testing it out with users and see if it will be met with the same “enthusiasm” as when Instagram first tried it out.
The idea behind hiding the like/reaction counter is to remove the “pressure” that people sometimes put on themselves when seeing the popularity or lack of popularity of their posts. There have been some studies about the negative effect this can have on a person’s self-esteem and mental health not to mention the rise of the influencer culture on social media which isn’t always based on authenticity.
According to Jane Manchun Wong, she has seen a prototype of this hidden count feature in the Facebook Android app though the powers of reverse-engineering and playing with the code. Actually, the list of people who reacted and liked can still be seen but what will be hidden is an actual count of those people. So unless people will manually count all of those lists (which you probably shouldn’t do), then the count is officially hidden or unknown.
Since it’s still early stages right now and the feature is still in development, the count on likes/reactions are still visible but that will probably disappear as well. But if they do release it eventually, expect that things can be different and more polished as well.
Wong also emphasized that she doesn’t work for Facebook or Instagram since she was “swarmed by hundreds of angry Instagram users” after she leaked the hidden like count experiment previously.
