Facebook might remove the ‘like’ feature that users are so accustomed to, in favour of God knows what. The ‘feature’, which many have thought to increase people’s insecurities, and other problems, is now possibly facing removal from the platform. Arguably, Facebook was built on ‘Likes’, so I don’t really know what Facebook is going to look like without it.

The removal of likes was first being tested on Instagram, and it seems that they’re now working on adapting it to their main platform, Facebook.

Facebook is working to hide like counts, too!https://t.co/WnUrM12aZg

Tip @Techmeme pic.twitter.com/TdT73wT6A0

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) September 2, 2019

The change in the Facebook Android app was first reported by researcher, Jane Machun Wong, who coincidentally was the first to report the removal of likes on Instagram. Later, TechCrunch reached out to Facebook, and they confirmed the development. This update reportedly could work like the one on Instagram, where only the person who posts can see the amount of likes, and no one else can. There’s no rollout timeline in place just yet, so we’ll keep a look out for when the feature could become available.

But on to more pressing topics, what exactly will Facebook be without ‘likes’? Considering that many place too much of an importance on how many likes/reacts they get, I’m sure it’ll be a loss for many. But you have to see the broader aspect of the prospective implementation. There’ll probably be more confident people, posting things they normally wouldn’t, because of the fear of not getting enough ‘likes’. But Facebook probably knows best, considering they must’ve weighed the pros and cons of the ‘like’ system heavily before coming to a decision.

Let’s wait and see how this goes. Hopefully, it doesn’t totally destroy Facebook as a platform. Well, no more than it already has, anyway.