Social media platform X, formerly Twitter, has rolled out its 'private likes' feature. The update allows users on the Elon Musk-owned platform to like posts discreetly, with their activity remaining visible only to themselves.
What Is X's 'Private Likes' Feature
In an announcement on the 'private likes' feature, the X's engineering team said:
- You will still be able to see posts you have liked (but others cannot).
- Like count and other metrics for your posts will still show up under notifications.
- You will no longer see who liked someone else's post.
- A post's author can see who liked its posts.
Why X Likes Have Been Made Private
The X team said that this feature was rolled out “for everyone to better protect your privacy.”
Elon Musk, in a tweet, stated that it was “important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so!”
X believes this change will grant users greater freedom to interact with a wider range of content on the platform.
Last month, Haofei Wang, X's director of engineering, explained that they were making likes private as “Public likes are incentivizing the wrong behaviour.”
He said that many feel discouraged from liking content that might be ‘edgy' in fear of retaliation from trolls, or "to protect their public image," and assured that “soon you'll be able to like without worrying who might see it.”
The option to hide likes was previously only available to Premium subscribers. When X announced it in September, they said users could “keep spicy likes private by hiding your likes tab.”