Instagram reels now shares your likes with friends

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

TikTok creators resumed using their favorite platform yet their American access remains restricted so their future is at risk. Meanwhile, Instagram Reels users are encountering a problem of the platform’s making: The smart team at Meta now provides users with simpler methods to view details about the people who spend their time on specific reels. That means two things: The new sharing feature lets you find what your friends like more easily and lets them see your likes.

Instagram’s top executive Adam Mosseri shared the new changes in his Friday post. Here’s what’s new: Current Instagram users may notice a bar at the top right screen when launching Reels to see friend profile pictures from liked content. By tapping the bar you can switch to another video stream called “With friends.” Your “With Friends” feed shows only reels that your friends have selected to like. My feed shows one mutual friend like per video but when that happens I find videos that several friends have liked.

Tap any user profile picture to see if they liked the reel and get the option to reply to them. You can interact with the user who likes content by responding below the bar with written messages or emoji reactions.

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Instagram has already been showing likes for a while

This episode of social media navigation patterns has seen previous existence. When you watch reels on Instagram you often see which of your friends has already liked the video you watch. However, this change puts those likes on display in a way they weren’t before: You used to discover your connections’ likes by chance through accidental views. You can now look through videos that your friends favour and discover more content they’ve liked.

By tracking what your Instagram friends like you will discover more content you might like because you share their interests. When you can see what others like on reels this feature might push people to avoid clicking the like button. Instagram Reels shows you tons of video content with your targeted preferences but hides other people’s missed opportunities for you to like. You might want to hide your appreciation for content types from other people. Most people wouldn’t want to support every weird video because too many social feeds share mindless content beyond its value.’