On the 15th of February 2022, Instagram Chief and Industry Expert, Adam Mosseri took to Twitter to announce a gaming-changing addition to Instagram stories.
❤️ Private Story Likes ❤️
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) February 14, 2022
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
How does this work?
Social Media Today helps us decode this new feature, As demonstrated by Instagram’s Chief Adam Mosseri – “Now, down the bottom of your Stories view in the app, you’ll see a new heart icon, which, when tapped, will send the creator of that Story alike.
Stories likes are not public, and only the creator will be able to see them. Creators will be able to view their Story likes in their Story insights, with a small heart icon added next to the viewers’ name in the view listing.
And as noted, Stories likes will not come through as a DM, so you’re not suddenly going to get an influx of DMs as people use the function to react to your Stories.”
A step towards better connectivity
This could be a good way to learn more about broader user response, while also providing a simple feedback mechanism for creators. It always feels better to see how people are responding, and reducing the pressure around DM responses for stories seems like a positive step.
Let us know how you plan on using this feature to your advantage by following us on @itp.live!