Is your Instagram now showing likes? Here’s the reason why.
Are your Instagram likes gone?
Have you opened your Instagram app and discovered that you can lo longer see the number of likes under the photos in your feed and your own pictures as well? If you are seeing this in your account or if you’ve just heard about this from other Instagram users and want to find out more about this, keep on reading for the truth about why Instagram likes have disappeared.
It turns out that for a while now Instagram has been testing a new, like-free layout of the app. This testing is being conducted in a handful of countries, including Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Ireland and more.
Why is Instagram hiding likes and what can I do about it?
According to the company, they are currently testing a like-free version of Instagram and considering rolling out this change permanently to allow users to focus more on sharing content and connecting with other users instead of feeling like they have to compete for likes. This definitely sounds like an interesting idea, however, this is an enormous change for the platform, given the fact that users competing for likes has been the driving force behind its growth.
How can I see likes on my Instagram posts?
Even though in this new version of Instagram you can’t see how many likes other people have received on their photos, you can still see the number of likes on your pics. The only caveat is that they are not simply displayed below the picture like they used to be. Instead, the app will list the names of two users who have liked your photos followed by “and others”. If you tap “others” you will be able to see the list of people and number of likes.
How do I hide likes on Instagram?
As we’ve said above, the new like-free version of Instagram is currently being tested only in a few select countries. And even there not all users have the ability to check out the new feature – only some users have been chosen for this trial period. If you are in one of those countries and your likes have disappeared, there’s no way to get them back, you will have to wait until testing is over (if Instagram will even come back to the old version). If you are not in one of those countries, or if you weren’t chosen for the trial, there’s no way to hide likes, at least for now. So it looks like we’ll have to live with whatever Instagram sends out way for now.
What are the consequences of a like-free Instagram?
There will definitely be lots of people who love and hate the idea of Instagram without likes. But overall, we think that this is a great change, as people should start feeling a lot less pressure. You will no longer need to post during specific times to get the highest number of likes, and you should feel a lot more freedom in terms of the content you post – it no longer has to be the stuff that gets the most likes, which should give everyone a chance to make their Instagram accounts a bit more authentic.
