With Stories likes, Instagram has added a new, easy way for people to interact with Stories content in their feeds. You may ‘like’ any Story in your feed and notify the creator without having to start up a direct message conversation using this feature.
Users may now send Private Story Likes on Instagram
Instagram’s chief Adam Mosseri has recently demonstrated that new feature in a video. As you can see at the bottom of your Stories view in the app, you’ll now find a new heart icon that, when tapped, sends a “like” to the creator of that Story.
❤️ Private Story Likes ❤️
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
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) February 14, 2022
Story likes are not publicly viewable, and they will only be accessible to the creator. Users will be able to see their these likes in Story insights, with a little heart icon next to the viewers’ name in the view listing.
These likes will not be shown in our DM boxes, as we previously said. This is good since it’s annoying to have to send someone a DM informing them that you liked their Story. This adds a straightforward method of expressing interest without having to issue a new message alert every time you want to notify someone of your appreciation.
It may be a smart approach to increase Stories engagement, but it might also provide another signal for Instagram to consider when ranking the Stories in your feed and identifying those most likely to be of interest.
By the way, Instagram has not said that this will be a ranking factor at the moment. However, with another method of direct insight, Instagram should consider how it may use it to improve each users’ experience by displaying them more of what they love.
The introduction of a new, more accessible tool for users to post and interact with Stories also aligns Stories more with TikTok-style short video clips, which require user interaction signals for both ranking and engagement. Instagram already has Reels, but from now on Story viewers will also be able to engage more readily.
