Facebook is set to trial hiding likes from posts, the company has said, following on from tests conducted by subsidiary Instagram earlier this year. It's not yet known if this will be on profiles only or also on pages?
The trial will be conducted in Australia initially and is based on positive feedback from mental health professionals around boosting users’ wellbeing. Users will still be able to see how many likes a post garnered if so desired.
Instagram’s trial for hiding likes began in May in Canada with further tests pencilled in for Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Italy, Japan and Brazil in July. While little has been said publicly regarding the results of those tests thus far, the theory around preserving user mental health was similar.
The theory behind it was focused more around living life to the full and not committing every act to social media posterity.