People’s reactions to Instagram Stories are evolving. The Meta-owned photo-sharing network has added a new feature called Private Story Likes, which allows users to enjoy Instagram Stories without having to send a Direct Message or DM. Previously, anytime a user replied to a Story, a DM was sent. Users can also share their Stories with others. The hearts will now appear next to people’s handles in your Stories view sheet, which means that users will no longer be able to keep a tab of how many people have reacted to their Stories.
The reply will not be delivered as a DM if you touch the like button. The private story’s counts will not be revealed. The likes will be displayed on the viewer sheet rather than in the DM thread.
Talking about the update, Instagram head, Adam Mosseri said in a video, “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 on your Stories view sheet.”
He further added that “So now, as you go through Stories, between sending a 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 alike, and that like will show up in the viewer sheet, not in your DM thread with them.”
