Instagram rolls out new likes feature for stories
Social networking platform Instagram has rolled out a new feature, Private Story Likes, which will enable users to like somebody's Insta Story without sending them a DM (direct message).
Earlier, any responses sent to someone on a Story, whether an emoji or a full-on message, used to show up as a message in their DM inbox. But now with this new feature, users can react to a Story without clogging up the other person's DMs, according to The Verge.
"So now, as you go through Stories, between send message and that little paper airplane, there will be a heart icon. And if you tap on it, it'll send the author of that story a like, and that like will show up in the viewer sheet, not in your DM thread with them," informed Instagram head, Adam Mosseri in a video.
Notably, stories will not include like counts, which is a largely different approach than what the social media platform has chosen for users' main feeds.
Instagram has spent more than two years on testing hiding like counts on the main feed before making the decision to leave them on by default, even though users can opt to hide them on their posts.
According to The Verge, users will not see a public count for likes on Stories, but they will be able to know who left a like on their Stories by looking at the view sheet.
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"The idea here is to make sure that people can express more support for each other, but also to clean up DMs a little bit," he added.
Instagram's latest Private Story Likes feature was released as part of the company's attempts to improve the platform's messaging experience. Mosseri announced in December of last year that Instagram would focus on messaging and increase work on controls to promote transparency, as well as announcing the company's general goals for 2022.
Instagram released a range of new features earlier this month to make it easier for users to archive posts, comments, and other activities from the platform. Users can bulk remove or archive all of their content, including posts, Stories, IGTV, and Reels, as well as their interactions, such as comments, likes, and stories sticker reactions.
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