Here’s How to Hide Your Likes on Instagram

Using Instagram can feel like a popularity contest. No matter how much effort you put into your smartphone photography, it may seem like your posts never get as many likes as the next person in your feed. If you enjoy sharing pictures with friends but don't love the pressure that comes from existing online, you have options. As of 2021, Instagram has allowed its users to hide likes from the posts they see, as Mashable reports.

To make like counts invisible on Instagram, open the app and go to Settings. From there, select Privacy and Security and scroll down to find the Posts section. There's a subheading that reads Like and Views, and beneath that, there's a prompt to hide like and view counts. You can toggle it on to stop the number of likes and views from showing up on your own content and on posts from others. By keeping it un-toggled, you opt to have these metrics appear on photos and videos automatically.

This button controls how Instagram looks to you; it doesn't affect how your content appears to your followers. If you want to hide the likes on your posts from everyone else, you can opt to before publishing. At the bottom of the page where you can add tags and a caption to your post, select Advanced Settings. Here you will find an option to "hide like and view counts" for that specific piece of content.

Many people use Instagram for fun, but an emphasis on social clout and appearances can leave some users feeling worse when they close the app than when they logged on. Tailoring your scrolling experience to fit your needs is one way to make your time online more enjoyable.

Even after hiding likes from your feed, you may still benefit from spending less time on Instagram altogether. Fortunately, both Facebook and Instagram make it easy to see how much time you devote to the apps each day.