Francis Muli
Facebook could soon stop showing number of likes on your posts, “to lessen pressure on the platform” in the race for likes.
This comes a few days after the company announced that a similar move on sister social media network, Instagram.
The move which is being experimented was revealed by Jane Manchun Wong, a technology enthusiast who claims to uncover unreleased features of technological firms.
“I observed that Facebook has recently begun prototyping this hidden like/reaction count feature in their Android app by reverse-engineering the app and playing with the code underneath,” she said, posting screenshots of the feature.
In the new feature, the like/reaction count will be hidden from anyone other than the creator of the post, just like how it works on Instagram. The list of people who liked/reacted will still be accessible, but the amount will be hidden.
Read: Instagram Set To Remove Likes Count To Reduce ‘Pressure’
The feature is set to help users feel less anxious about the perceived popularity of their content.
“We hope this test will remove the pressure of how many likes a post will receive, so you can focus on sharing the things you love. We want people to worry a little bit less about how many likes they’re getting on Instagram and spend a bit more time connecting with the people that they care about,” Mia Garlick, Facebook Australia and New Zealand director of policy, said in a statement while launching the feature on Instagram.
Studies have shown that social media use may influence mental health, including leading to depression and anxiety.
Currently, Facebook boasts 2.7 billion monthly users across its family of apps. That includes Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, and core Facebook, with 2.1 billion of those people accessing one of the apps every day.
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