Instagram gets rid of 'stalking' feature

No longer will you be able to see what your friends are liking, comments, and following. Photo / 123RF

Instagram has announced they're doing away with the "following" tab that lets you see what posts your friends are liking.

The social media giant removed the feature for some users back in August, but has now confirmed that the feature will be permanently phased out this week.

Instagram's head of product, Vishal Shah, says the decision was due to the fact that hardly anyone used the feature anyway.

"People didn't always know that their activity is surfacing. So you have a case where it's not serving the use case you built if for, but it's also causing people to be surprised when their activity is showing up," Shah told BuzzFeed News.

In May Instagram announced they were testing hiding the number of "likes" that photos and videos receive to rein in competitive tendencies and make the experience a little "less pressurised."

Instagram's head, Adam Mosseri, said the change was designed to minimise the stress of posting online, where users can fixate on how many "likes" their posts draw.

"We want people to worry a little bit less about how many likes they're getting on Instagram and spend a bit more time connecting with the people that they care about."

Mosseri said the experiment is part of a broader effort to rethink the fundamentals of how Instagram works and create a more welcoming experience.