Likes on X (formerly Twitter) still exist but they are hidden from public view by default on most accounts. You can no longer easily see what someone else has liked. Your own likes are visible to you in your profile's Likes tab, but other people generally cannot browse your like history unless X changes this again.
What changed with likes on X
Likes have not been removed from X (formerly Twitter). The button is still there, the counter still moves, and liking a post still sends a little nudge to the person who posted it. What changed is visibility. X made likes private by default, which means other users cannot scroll through your public like history the way they used to.
This caught a lot of people out, including me. For years, you could click onto anyone's profile, tap their Likes tab, and see exactly what they had been reading or agreeing with. That is gone for most accounts now. It is a privacy change, not a removal.
So if you have been searching for your old likes and cannot find them, you are not missing a setting. X has simply switched off public access to that tab for other people.
Can you still see your own likes
Yes. You can still see your own likes. Go to your profile, find the Likes tab, and your history should still be there, assuming you have not cleared it or the account is particularly old and X has not flagged it for any reason.
This is worth checking if you use likes as a bookmarking tool, which a lot of people do. I know marketers who like posts purely to find them again later. That function still works for your own account, even though nobody else can see what you have been doing.
Why X made likes private
X has not given a single, fully detailed explanation that covers every reason, but the general direction is clear enough from how the platform has been talking about engagement. Public likes created pressure. People were holding back from liking posts they agreed with because they did not want it showing up on their profile for followers, colleagues, or family to see.
That pressure changes behaviour. It makes likes less honest as a signal, because people like things based on what looks acceptable rather than what they think. Making likes private removes some of that social pressure.
It also fits a wider pattern. Several platforms have moved away from fully public engagement histories over the past few years. X following that path is not surprising, even if the exact timing and reasoning were not laid out in full detail.
What this means if you run a business account
If you use X for business, this changes how you should think about likes as a metric. You can no longer rely on checking who liked a competitor's post, or scrolling a prospect's likes to understand what they are interested in. That kind of manual research is largely closed off now.
Likes still count toward engagement numbers and still feed into whatever X's algorithm does with a post, so they have not become meaningless. But as a research tool for sales or marketing, public like browsing is no longer something you can depend on.
I would shift attention toward replies, reposts, and quote posts instead. Those are still visible, still public, and often tell you more about what someone thinks than a like ever did.
How to check your like privacy settings
There is no complicated process here, and you cannot toggle likes back to public even if you want to, since X controls this at a platform level rather than through a personal setting you can switch. Still, it is worth knowing where things stand on your account.
- Open your profile and tap or click the Likes tab to confirm your own history still appears correctly
- Check another account's profile to see whether their Likes tab is visible or hidden, which tells you how the current default is applied
- Look in your settings under privacy and safety for any wording related to likes visibility, since X does sometimes adjust labelling without a major announcement
- If something looks inconsistent, such as one account showing likes and another not, treat it as a platform bug rather than a setting you have control over
I would not spend much time hunting for a hidden switch. As things stand, this is not something you can personally configure beyond what X already applies by default.
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What you cannot do anymore
I want to be plain about this rather than vague. You cannot reliably browse a stranger's full like history on X anymore. You cannot assume a public profile will show you what posts someone has engaged with over time. And you cannot turn your own likes public again if X has set them to private by default, because that control sits with the platform, not the user.
If a tool or extension claims to show you someone's hidden likes, be cautious. X has not documented any official way to bypass this, and claims like that are usually either outdated information from before the change or something that will stop working the moment X notices.
What to do instead of chasing old likes
If you were using likes to track interest, whether that is for sales, research, or just curiosity, it is worth building a different habit. Replies and quote posts are still fully public and often carry more information than a like did anyway, since someone has taken the time to write something rather than just tap a button.
Bookmarks are another option worth considering if you need to save posts for yourself, since that function has stayed stable and is not tied to the same visibility changes as likes.
For anyone managing a brand account, I would also keep an eye on official X communications rather than relying on general chatter, since platform behaviour around engagement features has shifted more than once and is likely to keep shifting.
Frequently asked questions
Have likes been removed from X completely
No. Likes still exist and still work exactly as before in terms of function. What changed is visibility, since most accounts no longer show a public Likes tab that other people can browse through.
Can I see who liked my own posts on X
This depends on your account settings and what X currently allows, and it can change without much warning. The safest approach is to check your own analytics or notifications directly rather than relying on older guides.
Can I make my likes public again on X
Not reliably. This is controlled by X at a platform level rather than through a simple personal setting, so there is no straightforward toggle you can switch to restore public visibility.
Is there a way to see someone else's hidden likes on X
Not through any official method. Be wary of tools claiming to reveal hidden likes, since X has not documented a legitimate way to bypass this privacy change.
More X and Twitter fixes: the X help guide.
