Social media giant, Facebook will start hiding like counts on their posts. This is a move they have adopted on Instagram.
Yesterday, the company held a test in Australia which was successful. The feature will roll out today in the country and is expected to be made available worldwide within the coming months.
The hidden like feature is expected to work in the same fashion as what you’ve on Instagram. Only the owner of the post will be able to see the likes counts. Others users will only be able to see who and who liked the post.
According to a spokesperson from Facebook who spoke to Techcrunch, the company is gathering feedback to find out if this feature will improve the user’s experience.
“We are running a limited test where like, reaction, and video view counts are made private across Facebook” a Facebook spokesperson tells me. “We will gather feedback to understand whether this change will improve people’s experiences.” If the test improves people’s sense of well-being without tanking user engagement, it could expand to more countries or even roll out to everyone, but no further tests are currently scheduled.
The main goal of this feature in both Instagram and Facebook is to make users feel comfortable when sharing contents on the platform. It will also stop the stigma surrounding post with fewer like counts.
According to studies, like counts tend to have a negative effect on a user’s mental health. If this feature helps prevent these negative effects, Facebook plans to release it in all countries as soon as possible.
For now, no further test is scheduled. At this moment, the company is sure of feature, since its already active on Instagram. Their main concern is getting feedbacks, which will determine the kind of impact it has on Facebook users.
