You can hide likes on your own Instagram posts or those on your feed through the app’s settings.
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You can hide the number of likes on your Instagram posts before sharing them.
You can also hide the number of likes on other people’s posts.
Hiding likes should not impact your account’s performance on Instagram.
Tracking likes and comments on social media can negatively impact mental health and make posting on Instagram feel more like a popularity contest rather than a space to connect with people.
On Instagram, you can hide likes, letting you and your followers focus more on content and less on how well liked it is.
There are a couple of ways to hide likes on Instagram. You can hide likes on your own posts, either when you create a post or afterward, as well as hide the number of likes from view when browsing other accounts. Here’s how to do it all.
How to hide likes on posts from other Instagram accounts
This will keep you from seeing like counts when you browse posts from other Instagram users.
1. Open the Instagram app. Go to your account page by tapping your profile icon at the bottom-right.
2. Tap the three-line menu at the top right. Tap Settings.
Here, you can also view your Saved posts and Close Friends list.
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3. In the search field at the top of the Settings page, type “posts” and tap Posts when you see it in the search results.
4. In the Likes and Views section, tap the slider next to Hide Like and View Counts. The slider turns blue when this feature is activated.
You can hide like counts from other Instagram accounts.
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How to hide likes on your own Instagram posts before sharing
You can hide the like count from other users when they browse your posts. You’ll need to do this for each new post as you create it.
1. Start the process of creating a new Instagram post by choosing your picture, or video, and typing a caption.
2. On the New post page — the final page with the Share button at the top right — tap Advanced settings.
Unlike automatically hiding like counts from other Instagram accounts, hiding like counts from your own posts has to be done manually.
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3. In the Like and view counts section, tap the slider next to Hide like and view counts on this post. The slider turns blue when this feature is activated.
If you change your mind about displaying like counts, you can change this setting after posting.
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Quick tip: In the Advanced settings menu, you can turn off comments and share the post to Facebook.
How to hide likes on your own Instagram post retroactively
You can disable the like count display even after a post has been published.
1. Open the Instagram post that you want to hide likes for.
2. Tap the three-dot menu at the top-right.
This post currently has the number of likes visible.
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3. In the pop-up menu, tap Hide like count.
Once the like count is hidden, only you can see it.
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Quick tip: You can also edit an Instagram post’s caption, tag people, and add a location after posting.
How to track hidden Instagram likes
If you have a Business or Creator account, you can view account metrics like audience, demographic, the number of accounts you’re reaching, and like counts on posts.
To change your account type, go to Settings > Account > Switch to professional account. Once you’ve switched, follow the below steps.
1. Open the Instagram app. Go to your account page by tapping your profile icon at the bottom-right.
2. Tap the Insights button underneath your bio.
3. In the Content You Shared section, tap the arrow.
4. Tap the Likes button to sort your posts by the number of likes.
Quick tip: You can see the number of likes on an Instagram post by tapping the profile icons underneath your post (where the like count would normally be).
On this page, you can see the number of “Likes” on your Instagram post and search for a username to see if they’ve liked the post.
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Will hiding likes affect my performance on Instagram?
The short answer: not really. According to Hootsuite, which has done a deep dive into Instagram’s algorithm, even if you hide the likes on your own posts and other people’s posts, Instagram will still track likes to determine what content is served first.
As long as people keep liking, watching, and commenting on your posts, turning off like counts shouldn’t change the performance of your posts.