San Francisco, Jul 18 (IANS): Facebook owned photo-messaging app Instagram is giving more users the option to publicly hide the 'Like' count on their posts as it is expanding the feature to six more countries.

First announced in May for users in Canada, now those in Ireland, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand will also be able to hide the 'Like' count on their posts, The Verge reported on Wednesday.

The company said the purpose behind the move is to remove the pressure among users who are concerned about the reach of their posts and impressions.

"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," Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, said during a conference in California, back in April.

Earlier in July, Instagram released an Artificial Intelligence-powered feature that lets users know if they are about to post an offensive comment.

In addition, Instagram has rolled out a new design on its Stories option in India.