Instagram mistakenly adds more people to its 'hide likes' test feature, calls it a bug

However, the feature was capped back to limited users and all people had to do was to refresh their feeds to see the like count as they saw before.

Representational image. (Unsplash)

Instagram tests several features from time to time and most of them are usually limited to a small crowd, before it reaches millions of users around the world. But recently, the photo sharing platform by Facebook mistakenly added a whole lot of users to one of its testing features - Hide Likes on posts. This feature might sound familiar to some users as the company started testing this back in November last year. The feature supposedly didn't show the like count on Instagram feed posts, letting only the publisher see it. However, the company now says that it added more users to this test ‘unintentionally' and called it a bug.

“We've been testing a new experience to hide likes on Feed posts. 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,” tweeted the official Instagram Comms account.

This issue has now been fixed. Pull down to refresh your feed and your likes should restore - thanks for your patience!

— Instagram Comms (@InstagramComms) March 3, 2021

Instagram tests several features from time to time and most of them are usually limited to a small crowd, before it reaches millions of users around the world. But recently, the photo sharing platform by Facebook mistakenly added a whole lot of users to one of its testing features - Hide Likes on posts. This feature might sound familiar to some users as the company started testing this back in November last year. The feature supposedly didn't show the like count on Instagram feed posts, letting only the publisher see it. However, the company now says that it added more users to this test ‘unintentionally' and called it a bug.

“We've been testing a new experience to hide likes on Feed posts. 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,” tweeted the official Instagram Comms account.

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However, the feature was capped back to limited users and all people had to do was to refresh their feeds to see the like count as they saw before. “This issue has now been fixed. Pull down to refresh your feed and your likes should restore - thanks for your patience!” added the follow up tweet.

As mentioned in a report by AFP from last year, Instagram started testing this feature as it had an impact on mental health. As per the firm, the number of likes on a post brings a pressure on how popular the post is and if people like it or not. Hiding likes will probably remove this pressure and people will be more comfortable expressing themselves without thinking about the number of likes.