Facebook, Instagram allow users to hide ‘like’ counts

Facebook will roll out the option to hide “like” counts on posts across Facebook and Instagram for all users this week, the platform announced Wednesday.

Users will be able to hide like counts on all posts on their feeds and on their own posts.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday that the new feature is geared toward decreasing stress from social media.

“The idea was to try to depressurize Instagram a little bit, to allow people to be able to focus more on the people that they care about and being inspired and worry a little bit less about how many likes they or other people are getting,” he said. 

“It’s important to us that people feel really good about the time they spend on the app and I believe that part of that is giving people tools to shape the experience in a way that’s best for them,” Mosseri added.

The like hiding feature had been in development for quite some time and was offered to a limited slice of users last month.

Users should see the option on Instagram within a few days and on Facebook “in the next few weeks,” per a company blog post.