Facebook owned Instagram, a photo and video sharing application, has beguntesting the ‘Like Count’ hide feature.

This time the application will begin to explore a new option where usersget to decide what works best for them — either choosing to see the Likecounts on others’ posts or not. Users will also be able to turn off Likecounts on their posts if they choose.

According to Instagram, the purpose of this feature is to reduce theanxiety and embarrassment of the user as most of the users get stressedafter seeing the number of likes on their post. And such problems are morecommon in young users.

It should be noted that Instagram also started testing this feature in2019. However, this experiment was done in a limited number of users andselected regions, but due to the changing situation after COVID-19, thecompany has shifted its focus to other important features.

“We’re testing this on Instagram to start, but we’re also exploring asimilar experience for Facebook. We will learn from this new small test andhave more to share soon,” a Facebook company spokesperson said.

Initially, ‘Hide Like’ only allows the user to see if he wanted to seeanother user’s like count. But now the company is giving the user theoption of whether he wants to see and show his like account or not.

If the user has opted in, they will find a new option to hide the Likesfrom within the app’s Settings. This will prevent users from seeing Likeson other people’s posts as they scroll through Instagram Feed.

The creator will be able to hide Likes on a per-post basis via thethree-dot “…” menu at the top. Even if Likes are disabled publicly,creators can still be able to view Like counts and other engagementsthrough analytics, just as they did before.

According to a website report, Facebook is also testing a similar featureon its social media platform.

Earlier, Instagram while testing the new feature was found to bemalfunctioning.