Following Facebook’s experiments to change the Instagram experience by hiding the total likes on posts, the company is apparently considering doing the same thing to Facebook itself.
The Instagram like hiding trial has been running in seven countries – including Australia – for a few months now. Its intended purpose is to make social media less ‘competitive’ by making it more about the content and less about how many imaginary numbers it racks up.
The experiment was discovered by Jane Manchun Wong, who frequently posts about unreleased features she finds in tech products.
Facebook is working to hide like counts, too!https://t.co/WnUrM12aZg
Tip @Techmeme pic.twitter.com/TdT73wT6A0
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) September 2, 2019
Speaking to TechCrunch, Facebook confirmed that it is considering running a test of hiding like counts for users, but would not confirm when it intended to do so, nor in which markets it planned to run the test.
It’s safe to say that Facebook probably likes the results it is seeing from the Instagram test if it is considering running it on its main platform.
Sadly, this could mean you’ll no longer rack up five figure like counts on your ill-advised “anyone up?” status at 3am on Saturday morning. Sorry guys.
