Instagram, starting today, will give users more control over the way they see likes on the platform. The company has announced a new ‘small global test’ that will provide users with three options when it comes to the seeing the likes counter.

With the new test, Instagram will offer three options to the user. A user can choose not to see like counts on anyone’s posts on their timeline, turn the likes counter off for their own posts, or keep the original experience seeing likes for both their posts and others’ posts.

Instagram has conducted a similar test previously, but the users did not have any choice then. Adam Mosseri, head of the social media platform, announced the changes today on Twitter. In the post, Adam says that the new test will let you decide what’s the best experience for you.

An update on like counts.

Last year we started hiding like counts for a small group of people to see if it lessens some pressure when posting to Instagram. Some found this helpful and some still wanted to see like counts, in particular to track what’s popular.

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) April 14, 2021

Adam says that a similar experience would soon be available on Facebook, where users will be able to choose what’s the best way of experiencing Facebook for them. Facebook says it’ll be learning from this new test and will “have more to share soon.”

Likes hiding test has been a little hit or miss for Instagram. Users, including many influencers, were initially hesitant about the feature, saying that the new feature would hinder with their brand engagement. Instagram then gave an option to view and share their own likes counts privately.

The feature isn’t available for everyone right now, and Instagram will randomly choose a group of users who’ll be given the choices. Depending on how the test goes, Instagram will roll out the feature to the public at a later stage.

What would you prefer if given a choice? Would you prefer showing the likes count or not? Drop a comment and let us know your thoughts!