TikTokers may have returned to their favorite platformbut with the US ban still in effect, they face an existential threat. Meanwhile, Instagram Reels users are running into a problem of the platform’s own making: Meta, in all its wisdom, is making it easier than ever for users to see who has liked a particular Reel. Of course, that means two things: It’s easier than ever to see what videos your friends have liked, but it’s also easier than ever for your friends to see what videos You liked.
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, announced the changes in a post on Friday. What’s new: When you launch Reels on Instagram, you may see a bar in the top right of the screen where you can find profile pictures of friends who have liked a particular Reel. Tap this bar and you’ll be taken to another video feed titled “With Friends.” This feed only contains Reels that your friends have liked. In my experience, most videos in the feed are liked by exactly one friend, but every now and then I see Reels that have been liked by multiple friends.
Regardless of whether the video has one or three likes, you can tap on any user’s profile picture to confirm that they liked this video and to reply to them if you wish. There’s also a bar at the bottom of the page where you can reply to the user’s “like” or simply respond with a laughing, crying, or “in love” emoji.
Replying to a Like will send your friend a DM. Here you’ll see a thumbnail of the video in question with your message or emoji reaction underneath. Above it you’ll see “Replied to your like” so they know it’s a direct reply to your like and not because you shared a video You liked with them.
Instagram has been showing likes for some time now
Some of these experiences are not new. Anyone who’s ever scrolled Reels knows that Instagram will often show you when one or more of your friends have liked a Reel you’re watching. However, this change makes those likes visible in a way that wasn’t the case before: previously, coming across friends’ likes was a much more casual and passive process. Now you can consciously scroll through the videos your friends have liked, dramatically increasing the number of videos you come across.
I suppose there’s an argument that this change makes it easier to find content you might like, since you probably share some interests with your Instagram friends. However, I also have another side of the argument – that the visibility of likes will encourage people to do so stop I like roles. Instagram Reels is a black hole of content and your fine-tuned algorithm is probably showing you at least some videos You You find it interesting or funny, but you know others won’t. Or maybe you don’t want people to know that you find them interesting or funny? There are a lot Brain rot humor (among other things) are floating around, and I would bet that many don’t want to offer enthusiastic support to every bizarre video that provokes a reaction from them.
Can you prevent friends from seeing the Reels you’ve liked on Instagram?
If this change worries you, there’s bad news: this time there doesn’t appear to be a way to disable the feature. While Instagram allows you to hide likes on posts and Reels, the app doesn’t provide an option to prevent others from seeing which Reels you’ve liked. If you like a video, you should assume that there’s a chance your friends will find out about it at some point while scrolling through the app.
