Instagram Tests Dislike Button for Comments

February 18, 2025, 9:13 am | Read time: 4 minutes

It has long been common practice in social networks to award likes. Instagram is now testing the dislike button for comments.

In the age of social media, distributing or collecting likes has become a collective hobby for people around the world. Whether on Facebook, X, or YouTube, users can quickly and easily post positive reactions to a piece of content. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a picture, a video, or even a single comment. But what about the counterpart? Users are currently reporting that they have found a dislike button on Instagram. But what’s behind it?

Instagram’s Dislike Button in Test Phase for Now

Back in January, leaker Alessandro Paluzzi shared on Twitter that Instagram was working on a new dislike button. He published a screenshot of this. This shows that a downward-pointing arrow can now appear next to the heart symbol for likes:

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However, the arrow does not appear on the posts themselves but on individual comments. Users can, therefore, use it to negatively rate other people’s comments. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri recently confirmed this on Threads, the company’s own short message platform.

As he explains, the use of Instagram’s dislike button is primarily of a private nature. The number of dislikes on an individual comment is not currently displayed. Nobody will even know that the button has been used. The main aim is, therefore, to provide the operators of the social network with direct feedback.

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These Are the Goals and Plans for the Button

As the company also told TechCrunch, only a few people are currently being given the opportunity to try out the negative reaction. It is not known how long the test phase will last and whether it will be extended in time. The dislike button is applicable to both reels and regular feed posts.

In the long term, however, one could imagine using the dislike button to prioritize the corresponding comments less in the display so that they only appear further down. The aim is to create a “friendlier” comments section, thereby enhancing the overall user experience.

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