Instagram has added a new feature “Private Story Likes” for users to directly react to users’ Stories instead of cluttering their DMs. The company’s head Adam Mosseri announced that the new feature rolling out today, globally.
Currently, users can express their reactions to Stories of the people they follow by sending heart, fire, and other emojis. But each time a person reacts to a Story, it is sent as a separate direct message which can easily crowd the DMs inbox. Like on Twitter, users on Instagram can now easily react to and view the reactions.
The new “Story Likes” on Instagram lets users react to Stories they like privately without sending a message
Designed to improve the messaging experience on Instagram, the new Story Likes feature allows users to instantly react to a story they like by sending a heart. Now there is a little heart icon in between the send message field and paper airplane to send the message, simply tap on the heart icon to react to the story you like. The ‘heart’ reaction shows appears on the viewer sheet of that story, not in DMs.
However, “Story Likes” are private and do not have counts. As “they appear as hearts next to people’s handles in your Stories view sheet”, tap on the heart icon of each Story to view who liked your story. Mosseri says that the new feature is a way to keep DMs a space for communication with friends and family or for important conversations.
❤️ Private Story Likes ❤️
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. 🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/l56Rmzgnnw
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) February 14, 2022
Instagram has been making changes to improve users’ experience and safety on the platform. After facing a lot of criticism, the company recently introduced new features which allow users to keep their accounts safe via Security Checkup Guidelines, manage bulk reactions, comments, likes, and more through the “Your Activity” section, and has made it more transparent to view their content and other accounts which violates platform’s guideline. The social media company will also bring back chronological feed, along with the algorithm-based feed.
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