Instagram Will Let Users Hide Likes. Follower Counts are Staying

Facebook Inc.’s Instagram, as well as the company’s main social network, will let users choose whether to hide “likes” on posts, after years of deliberation and testing.

Users can decide whether to hide their own like counts from themselves or from others on a per-post basis, or can decide not to see anyone else’s likes as they scroll through their feeds, Instagram, the photo and video-sharing service, said Wednesday in a blog post. Tests showed that providing an option on “likes” hasn’t had a big impact on how much people use the product; some are on the platform more after hiding likes because they feel less pressure to perform, while others are less active because it’s harder to see what’s trending.