This is your sign to hide likes on your Instagram. In an attempt to make user's experience more pleasant, Instagram rolled out the ability to hide like and view counts on all posts in their feed. This way users can focus on the content, rather than the popularity of the content.

Why did Instagram hide likes?

Instagram started to test hiding the number of likes posts get around the world in 2019, in an effort to curb some users' anxiety around how "popular" their content is in comparison to others'. You'll still be able to see how many likes your own posts get.

Does hiding like Count hide it from everyone?

Hide like counts on others' posts

This setting change applies to all the posts in your Instagram feed from other users. It hides both like counts and view counts from all posts.