After well over a year of testing, Facebook and Instagram have finally decided to officially allow users to hide like counts. If you've been feeling the heat about not getting enough likes or views on your posts, this is something you'll want to look into.
Facebook and Instagram first started experimenting with the idea back in 2019, but there hasn't been much news about it since then. There will be two options: hiding the like counts only on your own posts so that others can't see them, and hiding all like counts from your own news feed. According to Facebook, these options were discovered to be "beneficial for some and annoying to others," so that's why they're options and not standard.
The blog posts from Facebook and Instagram clearly show how to enable the feature for Instagram. To hide the like counts on your own posts, you'll need to hit the three-dot menu on each of your posts and click "Hide Like Count." To hide all like counts in your news feed, go to Settings > Privacy > Posts > Hide Like and View Counts.
However, it's not clear how to enable the settings on Facebook, despite the feature being claimed to be live now on both platforms. The photo above, shared by The Verge, shows how it's supposed to be accessed, but I was unable to find the "Reaction Counts" option in the Android app, the iOS app, and on desktop. According to The Verge, the per-post controls for Facebook likes will come in the next few weeks, though, as mentioned, I can't see any of the Facebook options at the moment. Here's hoping this is sorted out in the near future.