Instagram now lets you send private Story likes that don’t clog up your DMs

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Instagram is adding a new feature to help users interact with Stories. The Meta-owned social platform is rolling out a new ‘likes’ feature that lets users privately like another user’s Story. And the likes won’t clog up your DMs.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri shared this new update with a video on Twitter earlier this week. “The idea here is to make sure that people can express more support for each other,” he says. Now users have another option if they want to interact with someone’s story on the platform.

When you look at a story on Instagram, you’ll now find a little heart icon next to the “Send Messages” button. Tapping that heart icon will privately send a like to the creator of that story. Story likes will remain private so that public viewers don’t see how many likes a story actually has.

https://twitter.com/mosseri/status/1493299070823141379

Previously, the only way to interact with Instagram Stories was through DMs. You could send a DM response or an emoji reaction, but both options show up in your DM thread with that profile.

READ MORE: How to mute someone on Instagram (and why you should)

But Story likes don’t add to the clutter of your DM inbox. Instead, creators can see their Story likes when looking at their Stories viewer sheet. The creator, and only the creator, will be able to see the people who have liked their story through this page.

This is a cool little surprise feature from Instagram. I like the idea that Story likes will remain private and only seen by the creator of the Story.

If you haven’t seen the option to like someone’s Story yet on Instagram, don’t worry. These kinds of updates tend to roll out gradually, so the feature should make to all Instagram users in the next few days.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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