Instagram will conduct a test in the United States this week that will hide content “likes.” The change will first be rolled out to a select number of accounts in the U.S.
Users of the affected accounts will have their number of likes for each post hidden to the public, but account owners will still be able to see how many like they’ve received on their posts. The Facebook-owned photo-centric social network has previously tested this feature in other countries.
The plan was announced at WIRED25 by the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri. Mosseri also posted an announcement of the change to Twitter.
“It’s about young people,” Mosseri said during the Wired panel. “The idea is to try to ‘depressurize’ Instagram, make it less of a competition and give people more space to focus on connecting with people that they love, things that inspire them.”
“It means we’re going to put a 15-year-old kid’s interests before a public speaker’s interest,” he added. “When we look at the world of public content, we’re going to put people in that world before organizations and corporations.”
Hiding “likes” on the service will be a big change in the way Instagram works, as users have always striven to obtain as many likes as possible on the platform. Many Instagram influencers make money from companies to use their products on Instagram, with payment based on the number of likes received on the service.