Instagram is changing the way people react to Stories. The Meta-owned photo-sharing platform has introduced a new Private Story Likes feature that will let users like Instagram Stories without sending a Direct Message or a DM. Earlier, whenever a user reacted to Stories, it was sent as a DM. Users also have the option of sharing Stories. However, the latest update will display the hearts next to people’s handles in your Stories view sheet. This means that users would no longer have a count of the number of reactions to Stories.
Announcing the update, Instagram head, Adam Mosseri said, “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.” When you tap on the like button, the reaction would not be sent as a DM. The counts of the private story will not be displayed. The likes will appear in the viewer sheet, not in the DM thread.
“So now, as you go through Stories, between send 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 a like, and that like will show up in the viewer sheet, not in your DM thread with them,” Mosseri said in the video posted from his Instagram handle.
So, users will no longer see a public count, users will only get to see who left a like on their Stories if you look at a Story’s view sheet.“The idea here is make sure that people can express more support for each other, but also to clean up DMs a little bit,” Mosseri said in the video.
Previously, Instagram launched a Take A Break feature in India ahead of the Safer Internet Day 2022. The feature has been rolled out in all countries, including India. As the name suggests, the Take a Break feature will ask users to take a break from Instagram and suggest that they set reminders to take more breaks from the app.
Talking about the new feature, Natasha Jog, Public Policy Manager, Instagram, Facebook India, comments, “The wellbeing of young people is important to us, and we’re focused on ensuring that the time spent on Instagram is intentional and people feel good about it. In this context, we’ve launched ‘Take a Break’, to meaningfully improve the experience on Instagram for young people, parents and guardians. We aim to continue our work to create a safe and supportive environment on Instagram, so young people can use it to explore their interests, and find community.”
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