Instagram lets users hide number of ‘likes’

Instagram is to start letting British users hide the number of “likes” their posts receive as part of efforts to make the social network “less of a competition”.

Yesterday, the company began a global trial which will also allow users to hide the number of “likes” other people’s posts in their feed have garnered. The “like” button has previously been labelled “toxic” and criticised for pitting young users against each other.

A spokesman for Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, said the company would start rolling out similar test features to Facebook later this year.