Social media can be extremely addictive. Since people only post “glossy” content, most of what you see is either unrealistically positive or intended to get an emotional response from you. Instagramers are especially guilty of that.
Most people only share the highlights of their lives on Instagram, carefully selecting the best moments and memories will help them earn more likes and comments on the platform. This can quickly turn into a popularity contest if you care about how many people like and view your posts.
However, if you are not one of the Instagram influencers and don’t care about the stats, you can use a new feature and hide Instagram likes from your profile.
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Why hide Instagram likes and views
Instagram is not about likes and views. Usually, you post something because you want to share news, stories, or your feelings and opinions with people (or your followers in this case). So why do so many people like your posts and visit your Instagram profile to see them?
If you feel these are more important to you than the content you post on the platform, that’s not a good sign. Turning off Instagram likes is probably going to be great for your mental health.
If you want to keep the likes and views showing to track your engagement rate and think that will help you build a community of like-minded people, that’s a different story. You can still try turning off likes for a short time to see how that affects your mood and motivation. Since this process can be easily reversed, you won’t lose any precious data.
How to turn off likes on new Instagram posts
So you’ve decided to hide Instagram likes and views. Here’s how to do it on a single post. Instructions are the same for both iOS and Android. However, you will need to use the smartphone app to turn off likes. You won’t be able to do that using Instagram on your PC.
- Open your Instagram account and create a new one parcel.
- In the final stage of creating a new post, you will find yourself on Write a comment Page. At the bottom of this page, select Advanced settings.
- On top, convert Hide likes and views on this post switch above. If you don’t see this option, your Instagram app may be out of date. Try restarting the app and if you still don’t see the option to hide likes, update Instagram and restart the app again.
- Come back Write a subtitle page and finish creating your post. When the post is ready, select check mark icon in the top right corner of the screen.
Once your post is published, you will be the only one who will be able to see the number of likes and views on this particular post.
How to hide likes from old Instagram posts
Instagram makes it possible to turn off likes on posts you’ve created. To hide likes from an old Instagram post, follow the steps below.
- Open Instagram and navigate to an old post of yours.
- Choose vertical three dots icon in the upper right corner of the post to open the menu.
- From the menu, select Hide the number of likes.
You will see a confirmation message Hidden likes. From that point on, you are the only one who can see likes on this post.
If you later change your mind, you can always show the number of likes on your Instagram posts. To do that, go to this post, open the menu and select Show likes. Once again, you will receive a confirmation message Likes unhidden.
How to turn off likes on other accounts
In addition to your own posts, you can also hide likes from other people’s posts if you don’t want to see those likes in your Instagram feed. Here’s how to turn off the likes of other people’s posts.
- Open Instagram and go to your profile page.
- Choose three horizontal lines icon to open the menu.
- From the menu, select Setting.
- Then follow the path Privacy > Postand transform Hide likes and views turn on.
If you later decide that you want to see the total number of likes and views on posts from other accounts, you can easily reverse this. Follow steps 1 to 4 from above, except this time switch Hide likes and views Turn off.
Should you hide Instagram likes and views?
Even if you don’t want to get rid of Instagram likes altogether, it’s worth experimenting to see if without these numbers you’d be happier.
After turning off likes and views on all your posts, you’ll still see views on your Instagram Stories. That way, you’ll still be able to see if your engagement rates have changed or if your content is reaching roughly the same number of Instagram users. You’ll also get a notification when someone likes a post on your Instagram page.
