Want to hide the 'Likes' on your Instagram posts? THIS new feature lets you do that

Facebook-owned Instagram has started testing a new feature that will provide users to take more control in the form of usage of the platform: select not to see like counts on anyone's posts, turn them off for their own posts, or keep the original experience.

The company has announced a "small global test" that will present users with these options and it also revealed that it was also "working on a similar experience" for Facebook.

Last year, the social media platform ran a test to hide `like` counts on posts in seven different countries and announced in November that it was expanding the test globally.

"We are expanding our test of private like counts globally. If you're in the test, you`ll no longer see the total number of likes and views on photos and videos posted to Feed unless they're your own," the company had said in a tweet.

While the feedback from early testing in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan and New Zealand has been positive, "this is a fundamental change to Instagram, and so we`re continuing our test to learn more from our global community," it added.

Facebook also initially tested hiding the public-like count in 2019. The test hid public like, reactions, and video view counts.