Facebook, Like Instagram, To Test Hiding ‘Likes’, Reactions, And Video Viewcounts

Instagram‘s parent company, Facebook, is taking a page out of the photo and video-sharing company’s playbook by publicly hiding ‘like’ counts in order to alleviate user pressure, encouraging Facebookers to post more freely without fixating on reception.

Yesterday, Facebook said it would begin testing hiding ‘likes’, reactions, and viewcounts on select posts in Australia — and then will gradually roll out the future to the majority of Australian users, CNN reports. On test posts, a clickable list of Facebook users who have liked a post will still be available where likes and reactions would normally appear — but without a numerical count. Of course, all metrics will still be accessible to creators themselves — just not to the larger Facebook community. The test is rolling out for individual users, Facebook Pages, and ads.

“We are running a limited test where like, reaction, and video viewcounts are made private across Facebook,” a Facebook spokesperson told CNN in a statement. “We will gather feedback to understand whether this change will improve people’s experiences.”

Facebook first said it was considering such a test earlier this month. Instagram, for its part, began testing hiding likes in Canada in April, and has since its expanded the experiment to Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, and Japan — a sign that it’s been something of a success.