Instagram has rolled out a nifty update for Stories, which allows users to like a Story without sending a dedicated direct message to another user. The “Private Story Likes” feature allows users to show their love for the Instagram Story content of their friends without cluttering up their DM section.
Instagram Rolls Out Private Story Likes
The new Private Story Likes feature was recently announced by Instagram head Adam Mosseri. In a short video posted on Twitter, Mosseri explained how the feature would work on the platform.
Now, if you are a regular Instagram user, I’m sure you’d know that currently if you like someone’s Story on Instagram, it sends a dedicated message to the user’s DM section, notifying them that you have liked their Story. However, this would change with Private Story Likes.
The Private Story Likes feature allows users to like a person’s Story without sending them a direct message. Mosseri explained that there will be a new “heart” icon, which will appear between the message and forward option in the Stories UI. Users can click on the heart icon to like a Story and it will appear as an independent like on the Story’s viewer sheet.
It is worth mentioning that the Story viewer sheet will not show the cumulative like count of a Story and is different from an Instagram post’s like counts. It will only show tiny hearts sent by different Instagram users. Mosseri says that “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.” The feature is a part of Instagram’s focus on the DM section, which is a priority in 2022.
Although Mosseri said that Private Story Likes has started to roll out for the public, it was not available for me on my iOS device at the time of writing this article. Nonetheless, we expect it to be available for users soon. So, if you do not see it, try updating your Instagram app from the Google Play Store or the App Store. Also, let us know your thoughts about the Private Story Likes feature on Instagram in the comments below.
