It was about time that Instagram introduced enabling likes on their stories. Whether you like to admit it or not, notifying others that ‘you like their stories’ through a message was quite a task for many people. Sometimes you want to click, like, and move forward.
By enabling the Likes on Stories, Instagram has helped chested down the weight of direct message sharing. Earlier, you would have to send a private message or reshare if you liked a story, but now, you can mark your likes and let the other person know that you love seeing their stories, rather than sliding down into their inboxes.
Rolling out the Story Likes enables immediate liking by tapping onto the heart icon as you do in a regular post. These likes are private and will not be visible to anyone other than you. Quite an exciting feature because counting your preferences shouldn’t be any other person’s business anyway.
Why did Instagram Roll out the Story Like Feature?
In a tweet earlier, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram Stories, said that enabling the Story Like Feature will clear the clout that builds up in a user’s inbox. Instead of focusing on essential messages, people have to scour through junk DMs that are unnecessary.
“Messaging is a key priority for us, and a big piece of that is focusing on DMs. The idea here is to make sure that people can express more support for each other and clean up the DMs a little bit. At the beginning of the year, I said that messaging was a key priority for us, and a big piece of that is focusing DMs on conversations between you and the people you care about.”
How to Like a Story
It seems as if it is incumbent for all apps to launch a new version every day. With better features to stay relevant, which is brilliant, of course. Similarly, Instagram is constantly polishing out its app with over a billion users, so ‘liking a story’ is another feather in its cap. To like a story, follow the steps:
- Installing the latest version will give you the option of ‘liking a story.’
- All levels will twinkle with colourful lights.
- Click on the heart icon right next to the ‘send the message.’ That’s it.
- Stories are up only for 24 hours, so you can only like them within 24 hours.
- Aren’t these steps tremendous and also very easy?
How to Check Likes on Stories
If you are still unaware of how to enable like stories on instagram, fear not because we have curated the steps for you to understand them better.
- Again, you must have the app installed on your phone. If you already have it, update to its latest version.
- You can easily upload your stories by clicking on the top left corner where your profile icon is visible.
- Tapping it again will show the list of people liking your stories. A heart will appear next to their names, stating that they enjoyed your account.
- You can only keep track of your viewing for 24 hours; after that, the story disappears, and so does the viewer sheet.
Stories and their Impact
We can gradually see that more and more people are sharing their day-to-day lives through stories. Instead of focusing on creating a photo gallery, they wish to upload their pictures and videos on Stories because of several reasons:
- They disappear after 24 hours.
- You can set privacy for your stories.
- If somebody takes a screenshot of your stories, you are automatically notified.
Stories have an impact on Instagram’s Algorithm. It is evident. If you are a frequent poster, your posts will appear in the ‘Explore’ section.
Pinning Posts on Instagram
Just as you can highlight your Stories on Instagram, you will soon be able to pin some of the posts on your profiles. Twitter now allows pinned posts on users’ profiles for easy access to essential bases, and if Instagram follows the same route, you will be able to organize your profile better. If positively rolled out, the new feature will clear the unwanted clout.
Instagram enabling likes is a better way of showing appreciation when you don’t have anything to say. With a busy schedule where even sitting with family is a luxury, choosing to like stories through hearts is an excellent way of making someone’s day.