Instagram Exploring Dislike Button for Comments, with Potential Impact on Ranking Algorithms

Instagram has finally confirmed that it is testing a new ‘dislike’ button that lets users downvote a distasteful or irrelevant comment on the platform. The dislike button will appear across both Feed posts and Reels. The Meta-owned photo and video-sharing platform will not show the dislike count but it will be considered in ranking comments. The dislike button is currently visible to select users and there is no confirmed release date for the feature as of yet.

Instagram Tests New Dislike Button for Comments

In a Thread post, Instagram Head Adam Mosseri announced that the social media platform has started testing a new feature that allows users to express their disapproval of comments on posts and Reels through a private dislike button. «This gives people a private way to signal that they don’t feel good about that particular comment,» he said.

The platform will not show the dislike count and no one will know if a user disliked a comment, though Mosseri says that eventually, the company may integrate this signal into comments ranking to move disliked comments lower down.

«Our hope is that this might help make comments more friendly on Instagram,” Mosseri said. The dislike button appears next to comments on a post or Reel and some users are already able to view and use the new button on Instagram.

The dislike button on Instagram appears similar to the downvote button on Reddit. YouTube offered a similar feature for videos but it stopped showing the number of dislikes on a video back in 2021.

Besides the dislike feature, the Meta-owned social media platform is also said to be working on implementing Community Notes. It also brings an Edits app for high-quality video capture and simplifying the editing process.