Facebook may start hiding the Like counter on News Feed posts.
Following the lead of subsidiary Instagram—already testing such a feature in seven countries—Facebook wants to protect users from envy and feelings of inadequacy.
Data miner Jane Manchun Wong first spotted the change in the social network’s Android app, reporting on Monday that “Facebook is working to hide like counts, too!”
In a blog post detailing the as-yet-unreleased function, Wong revealed that while a list of people’s reactions is still accessible, the total counts are concealed from everyone other than the content creator.
“Interestingly, like/reaction counts on comments are not yet hidden for now,” she wrote. “But this could be due to the nature of this feature being in an early stage of development. As always, things will be polished eventually.”
Facebook later confirmed to TechCrunch that it is considering testing the removal of like counts.
This prototyping, Wong said, indicates that Facebook and Instagram “have confidence the pros of hiding like counts outweigh the cons.”
“Users might feel less anxious about the perceived popularity of their content,” she continued. “Studies have shown that social media use may influence mental health, including leading to depression and anxiety.”
(Others, however, suggest the time teens invest on their phones doesn’t necessarily have an adverse affect on their mental health.)
Facebook declined Geek’s request for comment.
There is no word on when this new hidden feature will roll out to the public—if it ever does.
“Experimental features could come and go,” Wong said. “But I am certain hiding the public like counts will be beneficial to the digital wellbeing of a large chunk of users.”
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