Instagram CEO addresses awkward reality of accidentally liking old photos and it's not good news
We've all been there. Having a sneaky Instagram stalk and before you know it you're looking at someone's 2014 vacation photos. Which is all well and good until your finger slips and you accidentally like a post.
Addressing what everyone's been guilty of, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri has explained what happens when it happens, and you might not like the answer.
Taking to an Instagram reel himself, Mosseri said: “Have you ever been swiping through someone’s content from a long time ago and then by accident you liked that photo or reel and then you quickly unliked it because you didn’t mean to do it?
“Well, if you have and you were wondering what happens, I thought I’d create a short video explaining exactly what goes down.”
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For many people, they might hope that the notification disappears when you unlike an image.
Mosseri continued: “So when you do like someone’s photo, we send them a notification to let them know. But there’s actually two types of notifications, there’s the phone notification and then there’s the Instagram notification.
“When you unlike that photo, we can delete that Instagram notification, but we cannot delete that phone notification. So it’ll still say on their lock screen, you know, Adam liked that photo. But if they tap on it, there’s no record of it anywhere in the app. So it might be a little bit confusing.”
This might not come as good news to anyone who has ever fallen victim to an accidental photo like when nosying through someone’s old pics but it doesn’t look like Instagram can do anything about it.
The CEO added: “If we could delete that phone notification, we would, but we can’t. So just make sure as you’re scrolling through someone’s content from many, many years ago
that you’re careful not to like anything by mistake. Hopefully this clarifies things a little bit.”
This prompted many people to take to the reel’s comment section to share their own reactions to the news, with one user writing: “This makes it so much more mortifying.”
Another said: “Thanks for helping us stalk better.”
A third person commented: “Is the notification sent immediately? Wouldn't it be wise to delay the notification a little bit? Say, 15-30 seconds so that people have time to "undo" it?”
And a fourth added: “How about a notification of a repost we do? Some are losing their lives by an accidental repost it’s too close to the comments section.”