Instagram’s New Feature: What Do You Think?

It feels so alien to be creating a blog post about Instagram that is positive. The photo-sharing giant has brought out a new feature that could actually have a positive effect on many creative communities. Have you noticed it yet? Today’s post will give you my opinion on the changes as well as easy instructions on how to make the change happen for your account. Here is Instagram’s new feature…

So, What’s New?

As of May 2021, Instagram has gradually let users hide the likes on their photos. Now its been rolled out across the majority of users on mobile.

The idea behind this groundbreaking change is to “depressurize people’s experience” and take the honus away from how many likes a particular post has.

As a blogger, this was a feature I was excited about. Because my Instagram follower count is below 10k, I do not have the swipe-up feature in my stories. My count may be smaller when compared to other bloggers but my engagement is usually nice and strong.

Having a lower follower count can mean that sometimes my post doesn’t land the way I want it to. In years gone by, a post not getting masses of likes would have been really disappointing for me. These days, my own balance with social media is much healthier – if a post doesn’t do as well as others, I don’t sweat it as much.

Now, when you upload a photo to Instagram, you’ll be able to set your account to say something like “LoveRosiee1 likes your photo and others”.

What Do I Think Of This Change?

As I said above, I am a fan of this change.

I’ve never been one to look through others photos and focus much on the like count. Even as a content creator, it’s not something I worried myself about when it came to the people I follow.

Having said that, having the pressure of numbers removed, it feels freeing to create and share content. I feel like giving my like, comment and engagement to other content creators is something that is appreciated by the person that owns that content.

My likes let the person or brand know that I like their content rather than letting other Instagram users know.

How To Get Your Feed Showing No Likes

Annoyingly, Instagram isn’t bringing out this feature as an automatic update. To see the changes right now, you’ll have to make the changes in your settings.

Here’s how to do it:

• Click on one of your photos
• Click the three dots at the top right hand side
• Press the option “Hide Like Count”

When I tested the feature out, this only hid likes for the photo selected.

If you’d like to hide all likes, follow these instructions:

• Hit settings
• Go to Privacy
• Click Posts
• Slide the button that says “Hide Like and View Counts”

So, what do you think about this new feature?

Will it be something you use for your own Instagram?

What do you think of other people hiding their likes?

What other updates do you want to see from Instagram?

LoveRosiee
xxx