Instagram has released a new feature called Private Story Likes. Users will be able to like someone’s Instagram story without having to respond via DMs, as the name implies. The goal of this function is to allow users to express their love and support for other users while not filling up their DMs.

Why it was launched

Instagram’s head of product, Adam Mosseri, announced the Private Story Likes function on his official Twitter account. Users will be able to reply to people’s stories by liking them without having to write them a message, according to the feature’s description: “Starting to roll out today, you can now send some love by liking people’s stories without sending a DM. Likes on stories are private and do not have counts. Rather, they appear as hearts next to people’s handles in your Stories view sheet.”

Additionally, Private Story Likes will remain private, meaning that their count will not be visible to users or the public. If someone wishes to see the likes on their stories, they can do so by going to the story’s viewers, where likes will appear as tiny hearts next to the names of the viewers.

In a video posted on his Twitter page, Adam Mosseri explains the new Instagram Private Story like feature will work like this: “as you go through Stories, between send message and that little paper aeroplane, there will be a heart icon. And if you tap on it, it will send the author of story a like, and that like will show up in the viewer sheet, not in your DM thread with them.”

Because a user’s count is visible on their main profile, the functionality differs from likes received on the main post. Previously, users had to send their reaction as a DM in order to participate in the story reaction process.

How it works

Users can swipe up on the screen while watching a story to access the ‘Quick Reactions’ menu, which has many emojis such as happy tears, startled face, heart eyes, tear in one eye, applauding, fire, celebration, and the 100 emoji.

Users’ reactions to stories, on the other hand, are sent as a message to the individual who originally uploaded the story. While this is an effective technique of educating users about story reactions, accounts with a big number of followers may experience an increase in story reaction DMs.

In other news, ​​Instagram is doubling down on competition with TikTok in 2022.

Photo via Instagram