Instagram now lets you send private Story likes

Meta’s Instagram is introducing a new way for people to interact with Stories. Starting today, you can send a private like when someone shares an image or video that catches your eye.

Previously, the only way to respond to a Story was to either send the creator a direct message or an emoji reaction. In either case, your response would show in their messages inbox, thereby cluttering the interface. 

Once you have access to the feature, you’ll find a new heart icon located between the “Send Message” pill and airplane icon.

Should you decide to send someone a Story like, it will show up in the viewer sheet, which you can access by viewing your own Story again. People who publicly view your Stories won’t see a like count. 

“The idea here is to make sure that people can express more support for each other, but also to clean up DMs a little bit,” said Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram. “Messaging is a key priority for us, and a big piece of that is focusing on DMs between you and the people that you care about.”

Source:  engadget