Instagram is introducing a new "story likes" feature. The feature was unveiled last week but appears to have only arrived for many UK users today.
Story likes allow you, as the name suggests, to like someone's story. This means you don't clog up their DMs with reactions, like you had to do previously - though you can still do so if you prefer.
“So now, as you go through Stories, between send message and that little paper airplane, there will be a heart icon,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri said when he revealed the feature. “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.”
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Story likes are private and do not have counts - only the person whose story you're liking will be able to see you've liked their story. This is different to how likes work in the main Instagram feed, where they are public and users can see a count of anyone's likes if they have that setting on.
“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. The feature is the biggest to be introduced to Instagram for a while, possibly since it aped TikTok by adding Reels.
If story likes aren't available for you yet, try closing the app, updating it, and reopening it. The feature is being rolled out in phases, so if it still doesn't work, you shouldn't have to wait long.
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