Since Instagram was first stepped on the scene in 2010, one of the app’s success on the platform has been measured mainly by the number of likes received per post. Although many have criticized the likes factor, the number of Instagram likes has remained an important objective for many users.
This past Tuesday, Instagram mistakenly hid the amount of like counts on a post of many users. And people weren’t happy about it. Instead of the text showing an exact number of likes the post received, users were shown the post were liked by a “named account and others.”
This change affected everyone in users’ feeds, so they couldn’t see how many likes other people’s Instagram posts got.
“We unintentionally added more people to the test today, which was a bug — we’re fixing this issue and restoring like counts to those people as soon as possible,” a spokesperson told CNN.
Instagram began testing out hiding likes in July 2019 with Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, and New Zealand. Many users have also spoken out, saying that they haven’t been able to see their likes in over a year. Fortunately, they don’t mind the switch up because Instagram has been obsessed with getting lots of follows.
However, others who use social media for their brand and work were unhappy with the unexpected change.
Accounts that monetized off of engagement weren’t thrilled. Still, the CEO of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, wanted people to know that Instagram users’ well-being was more important to the social media platform. “We will make decisions that hurt the business if they help people’s well-being and health.”
Since yesterday, the issue has been resolved, and likes are showing again on Instagram.
What do you think of the hidden likes feature on Instagram? Did you get caught in the bug yesterday?
Writer: Kacee Marie
Instagram: @iamkaceemarie
