How to hide number of likes on instagram post


How to Hide the Number of Likes on Instagram Posts

  • You can hide the number of likes on an Instagram post by disabling the feature in the post before or after sharing it.
  • If you don't want to see the number of likes on posts from other accounts, search for Posts settings in the Settings menu.

One common complaint about social media is the way it drives an obsession with engagement. Look no further than Instagram, for example, to see how many likes each post receives directly under the photo. Instagram offers a solution for that, though — you can hide likes on Instagram, letting you and your followers focus more on content and less on how well liked it is. 

There are a couple of ways to hide likes on Instagram. You can hide likes on your own posts, either when you create a post or afterward, as well as hide the number of likes from view when browsing other accounts.

How to hide likes on posts from other Instagram accounts

This will hide the like count from you when you browse posts from other Instagram users. 

1. Start the Instagram app and go to your account page by tapping the account icon at the lower right.

2. Tap the three-line menu at the top right and then tap Settings.

Go to Settings in the three-line menu in Instagram. Dave Johnson/Insider

3. In the search field at the top of the Settings page, type "posts" and tap Posts when you see it in the search results.

4. In the Likes and Views section, swipe the button to the right to turn on Hide Like and View Counts.

You can hide your likes and views from the Settings menu. Dave Johnson/Insider

How to hide likes on your own Instagram post when creating it

You can hide the like count from other users when they browse your posts. You need to do this for each new post as you create it. 

1. Start the process to create a post in the usual way. 

2. On the New Post page — the final page with the Share button at the top right — tap Advanced Settings at the bottom of the page. 

Tap Advanced Settings to see the option to turn off the like count. Dave Johnson/Insider

3. In the Like and view counts section, swipe the button to the right to turn on Hide like and view counts on this post.

Turn off like and view counts from the Advanced Settings page before publishing a post. Dave Johnson/Insider

How to hide likes on your own Instagram post retroactively 

You can disable the like count display even after a post has been published. 

1. Open the post for which you want to hide likes.

2. Tap the three-dot menu at the top right.

3. In the pop-up menu, tap Hide like count.

Even after publishing an Instagram post, you can retroactively turn off the like count. Dave Johnson/Insider

Dave Johnson

Freelance Writer

Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider.

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How to Hide Likes on Instagram (and Why It’s Even an Option)

Do Instagram likes, like, even matter anymore?

Instagram now gives all users the option to hide or unhide the like count on posts. That means that instead of the default numerical value you’d normally see under a photo, it simply names a few users and adds “and others.” Here’s an example from four-legged fashion icon @baconthedoggers:

Hiding your like count on Instagram is easy and reversible, and in some cases, might have a positive impact on the way you experience the app. Here’s how to do it.

How to hide likes on Instagram

Why is Instagram giving users the option to hide likes?

Will hiding your likes on Instagram affect the performance of your posts?

How to track your Instagram likes (even if they’re hidden)

Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.

How to hide likes on Instagram

Instagram gives you the option to hide the like counts on everyone else’s posts in just a few steps, so you won’t see like numbers as you scroll through the app. You can also hide the likes on your own posts.

How to hide likes on other people’s Instagram posts

1. Go to your profile and hit the hamburger-style icon in the upper right corner of your screen. From there, hit Settings at the top of the menu.

2. From the Settings menu, hit Privacy. Then, hit Posts.

3. At the top of the Posts menu, you’ll see a toggle labeled Hide Like and View Counts. Switch that toggle to the “on” position (it should turn blue), and you’re set—the like count from all of your Instagram posts will now be hidden.

How to hide likes on your own Instagram posts

There are two ways to hide likes on individual Instagram posts. If you’re posting a new photo or video and don’t want the likes to show, you have the option to hide the like count before your post goes live.

Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.

Get the free guide right now!

Start creating your post as you usually would, but when you arrive at the screen where you can add a caption, hit the Advanced Settings option at the very bottom. From there, you can turn on the Hide like and view counts on this post toggle.

To turn off the like counts after you’ve already posted, go to your post and tap the three dots in the top right corner of your screen (the same path you would take to delete or archive the photo or video). From there, select Hide like count. Voila!

Why is Instagram giving users the option to hide likes?

You might be wondering why hiding likes is even an option.

To put it simply, it’s for our own good. According to a statement, the company started hiding like counts for certain countries to see if it would “depressurize people’s experience” on Instagram.

Research shows that we tend to equate our online success—followers, comments and like counts—with our self worth, especially in our teens. In 2020, a study of 513 teenage girls in Brazil found that 78% of them had tried to hide or change a part of their body they disliked before posting a photo. Another found that 43% of teens with low social-emotional wellbeing have deleted social media posts because they got too few likes. It’s also notable that in 2019, 25% of teens admitted to being the victim of cyberbullying.

The internet can be a really unfriendly place. Some people have built entire careers on Instagram, but whether you’re an influencer with a mega-following or a ghost who rarely posts, the seemingly harmless like count may be doing a number on your mental health.

After experimenting with hiding likes, Instagram concluded that the results were “beneficial for some and annoying to others. ” So in March 2021, parent company Meta announced a Miley Cyrus-worthy best of both worlds: users have the option to hide or unhide their own likes.

Will hiding your likes on Instagram affect the performance of your posts?

To hide or not to hide, that is the question. Does it really make a difference?

On Instagram’s end, not really. You can hide likes from yourself and other users, but the app will still track likes and use them as a ranking signal for the algorithm (for more information on that, here’s a deep dive into how the Instagram algorithm works today).

In short, the algorithm decides what content you see first (on Stories, posts and the Explore page). How the order is determined is specific to the individual; it depends on what you like, watch and comment on.

So that one superfan who’s always hyping your brand up in your comments is probably always going to see your posts, regardless of whether or not you hide your likes. And your Instagram crush’s extremely uncool but weirdly mesmerizing cup-stacking videos are still going to show up in your feed, even if you have his likes hidden and you totally don’t even care how many likes he has or whatever, it’s cool, you’re cool.

On a social/emotional/mental health level, hiding likes might be—as Instagram says— “beneficial” or “annoying” for you. If you’re feeling a bit obsessed with your like count, and find that it’s affecting your ability to post content that feels authentic to you, try hiding likes for a week or two. If it positively impacts your experience, keep that toggle on.

On a business level, like counts can serve as a form of social proof. People who first come into contact with your brand on Instagram can immediately get a feel of how big — or local — your business is based on your like counts. But, at the end of the day, quality content, a consistent aesthetic, and thoughtful interactions with your community in comments matter much more than how many likes your posts are getting.

How to track your Instagram likes (even if they’re hidden)

Instagram Insights

Instagram’s in-app analytics solution offers an overview of your account’s metrics, including information on how many accounts you’ve reached, the demographics of your audience, how your follower count is growing — and how many likes your posts get.

To view Instagram’s Insights, you need to have a Business or Creator profile (which is free and easy to switch to: just go to your Settings, hit Account and then hit Switch account type).

From your Creator or Business profile, go to your Instagram profile and hit the Insights button located underneath your bio. From there, scroll down to the Content You Shared section, which shows the number of posts you have made in the last 7 days. Hit the > arrow symbol on the right side. (If you haven’t posted in the last 7 days, you can still hit the button).

Instagram will then show you a gallery of posts that can be filtered to show specific metrics: reach, comments, and likes are included.

You can also select what type of posts to show (photos, videos or carousel posts) and in what time frame (the last week, month, three months, six months, year or two years).

To choose likes, pick the drop down menu in the middle of your screen (it will default to showing Reach first) and select Likes.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite’s Analytics are more robust than Instagram’s (brag alert!) and that includes insights into likes. In addition to that, Hootsuite can recommend the best time to publish posts—so you can get more likes, regardless of whether they’re hidden or not.

Learn more about Hootsuite Analytics:

Hiding likes allows you to focus on other areas of interaction (like conversations, mentions, keywords, and hashtags) which can be monitored using Hootsuite Streams. You can also use Hootsuite’s Inbox to reply to comments and DMs all in one place, which helps to manage your Instagram followers.

Save time managing your brand’s Instagram with Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can create, schedule and publish posts and Stories directly to Instagram, engage your audience, measure performance and run all your other social media profiles. Try it free today.

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Easily create, analyze, and schedule Instagram posts, Stories, and Reels with Hootsuite. Save time and get results.

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How to hide the like counter on Instagram - instructions • AIN.

UA

May 15, 2021, 16:01

23748

Back in 2019, the Instagram social network began testing the ability to hide likes. Then the company forcibly removed the “Like” marks in some accounts, explaining that the innovation would reduce social pressure between users. In 2021, the company announced that the experiment is going global. An AIN.UA journalist noticed an option in his personal Instagram profile and tells how to hide the likes counter.

How to hide likes on Instagram

In short:

  • in your personal profile, select the photo on which you want to hide the like counter;
  • click on the ellipsis icon at the top of the photo;
  • select "Hide number of likes";
  • in the case of a video, the user hides not only the number of likes, but also views.

Details

Users received two new options: hide the number of likes on personal photos and the ability to disable the display of the counter on the publications of other users. It is noteworthy that the user cannot hide all the likes on personal photos at once - the option must be enabled in the settings of each image. Here's how to do it:

Images in the material: AIN.UA
  • Go to your Instagram profile;
  • Click on the photo where you want to hide the like counter;
  • Click on the ellipsis icon at the top of the photo;
  • Select Hide Number of Likes.

You can also hide the counter while preparing your photo for publication. To do this, you need to go to "Advanced Settings" and enable the "Hide the number of likes and views on this post" option.

You can turn off the ability to see the number of likes of other users in the Instagram settings. In this case, the user will not be able to see the exact “Like” marks, while the feed will also be formed according to the principle of potentially interesting publications for a particular person.

  • Go to "Settings" and select "Privacy";
  • Click "Publications";
  • Enable the "Hide Like and View Counts" option.

In addition, users can customize the way they work with tags: turn on the manual approval option, and also specify who exactly can tag them on photos. This is a rather useful feature, since often users are marked by advertising accounts.

Why it's interesting

Facebook, which owns Instagram, says the "hide likes" feature will help users focus on content rather than studying its popularity. It is for this reason that the company is actively working on its implementation, in particular on Facebook. With the help of preliminary testing, we managed to find out that not all users need such a function - for example, some use data to determine the popularity or relevance of their content. In this regard, the company decided to provide several options for settings.

It's also interesting that Instagram hasn't announced the official launch of the option to hide likes. In April 2021, it became known only about the beginning of global testing, while users who gained access were promised to send appropriate notifications. By the way, the AIN.UA journalist did not receive such notifications.

Recall that earlier AIN.UA told how to delete Instagram, as well as how to watch stories anonymously.

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How to hide likes on Instagram from yourself and others. Full instructions

Instagram has long been testing a feature that would allow to permanently remove likes from posts and the number of views from videos. What for? According to the administration of the service, for the sake of equality between users: so those whose posts get a few likes will not be complex and chase after "hearts" when they see thousands or millions of likes from others. It was expected that Instagram would turn off likes forcibly, since the service had previously removed the exact “Like” counter from some users, replacing it with the phrase “and others.” But users were still given a choice, and now you can disable likes and views both for your posts and for everyone else in your feed.

You can hide likes on all your photos and videos. And other users too

How to remove likes on insta

You can remove likes and views counter both for new publications and for existing posts in your profile. To remove likes and views from a new post, do the following:

  1. Start creating a new post;
  2. At the step of adding a signature, select Advanced settings at the very bottom;
  3. Turn on the toggle switch Hide the number of likes and views on this post .

You can hide likes right when publishing a post

Add a signature, tag people if necessary, everything is as usual. After you click Share , the post will be published, but without likes (if it's a photo) or a view counter (if it's a video).

To remove the number of likes or views from an existing post, open it, click on the three dots on the right and select Hide number of likes .

You can hide likes in an already published photo in a couple of seconds

How to turn off likes on Instagram

Recently, Instagram also has the ability to hide likes not only for your own publications, but also for others. More precisely, they will see their “Like” marks, but you will have a neat feed without extra hearts and information about the number of views.

  1. Open Instagram and go to your profile;
  2. In the upper right corner, select the context menu;
  3. Open Settings - Privacy - Publications ;
  4. Select Hide Likes and View Counts .

After that, you will not see likes from others

It should be noted that this feature is not yet available to all users. For example, I don’t have such a parameter on my personal page, but on Instagram AppleInsider.ru, where there are more than 50 thousand subscribers, it appeared this morning. So if you don't have the option to turn off likes yet, you're not the only one. Looks like Instagram first rolled it out for users with a lot of followers. Which is actually strange, because disabling likes was done specifically for those who have few subscribers.

You might be interested : How to download any Instagram video to iPhone or iPad

Curiously, with all the innovations, Instagram never released a version for the iPad. The head of the service previously explained this by “lack of time,” saying that Instagram developers simply do not have the strength for this, as they are busy with other projects. Apparently, they made a button to turn off likes in the application. Would you like Instagram for iPad or are you already resigned? Tell us in our Telegram chat.

In fact, some Instagram projects seem frankly far-fetched. At first, the company tried to popularize a dedicated Direct messenger to give users the opportunity to communicate, as it were, outside the social network, since, as it turned out, a lot of people use the built-in messaging tool quite actively.


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