Instagram rolls out ‘Private Story Likes” feature

In a recent video announcement, Instagram head Adam Mosseri has revealed that the company has rolled out a new feature that will enable users to like one’s Instagram stories without sending a DM.

Titled ‘Private Story Likes‘ feature allows users to engage with stories in a private manner. Unlike earlier where the story reaction would get captured in one’s direct messages, the latest update is more tightened. The new edition of Private story likes is an effective way to engage with your friends and acquaintances.

In the features available previously for Instagram stories, users were only able to interact with stories by either DMing them or resharing them. Having to DM was not only tedious but also used to mess up the DM box of the users. This latest update allows users can get likes on Instagram Stories without having to clutter their DM box.

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This feature allows you to tap the heart icon just like you would do to an Instagram post. The heart button will be placed between “Send Message” and the “Paper Airplane” or “Share” option. This feature doesn’t send a notification to the user when you like the story. Instead the like is visible in the viewer sheet of a particular story. Although private story likes will not show a count of likes unlike that of Instagram posts.

The new feature, “Private story likes” was an initiation of Instagram’s attempt to improve the chat experience of its users. Instagram has always been looking after the smooth working of the app and messaging experience. They keep coming up with various features to make users’ lives easier.

Adam Mosseri, in December 2021 announced that Instagram will be focussing more on the messaging and they will also work on controls to better the transparency. Instagram added a bunch of new features recently. The previously updated features include “Chronological order of the feed”, “New safety features”, “Deleting a specific post from the carousel”, and to name a few.

Moreover, the video tweet by Mosseri introducing the new feature is getting quite the attention. The caption in the tweet says that one can send some love by liking people’s stories without having to send a DM. These likes on stories are private and do not have a count but appear on the view sheet.

This is a feature that allows you to send love and start a conversation without even actually starting it.