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Instagram is taking away one of its key features next week and folks aren’t too happy about it. The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, announced that the number of likes a picture receives on IG will now be shown only to the account user and not to their followers.
“Right now, we’re testing making like counts private, so you’ll be able to see how many people liked a given photo of yours or a video of yours, but no one else will,” Mosseri announced Friday at Wired25 according to NPR.
Mosseri explained that he wants to help shift the focus of the younger generation and encourage them to focus more on connection and not the attention they receive.
“It’s about young people,” Mosseri said. “The idea is to try to ‘depressurize’ Instagram, make it less of a competition and give people more space to focus on connecting with people that they love, things that inspire them.”
Instagram has already tested this out in other countries, including Australia, Canada, Brazil and Italy.
Mosseri said he is looking forward to what the public has to say about this change.
“Heads up! We’ve been testing making likes private on Instagram in a number of countries this year,” he tweeted. “We’re expanding those tests to include a small portion of people in the US next week. Looking forward to the feedback!”
The feedback about hiding likes has been mixed. While some don’t understand why IG is forcing this change on its users, others are questioning why users see likes as so valuable.
Nicki Minaj also sounded off about it and said the change is more of a money move.
There’s no word on how long they will be testing this new feature out. Take a look at some of the reactions below.
