Instagram ‘Private Likes’ On Stories Now In Beta Test

Meta Owned company, Instagram has started testing “private likes” a new feature currently available to a small group of people globally as part of a limited test.

Instagram also explained that only the person who posted a story will be able to see the number of likes and there is no aim to make the like count public.

Users that are privileged to see the feature shared screenshots of the new option on Twitter. The screenshots show that users who are part of the test will receive a notice stating that they may receive likes on their Stories.

Currently, the option to reply or react to a story with eight options, including the laughing, surprised, heart eyes, teary-eyed, clap, fire, celebration and 100 emoji. These reactions are not publically visible, but the person who posted the Story is able to see the total number of reactions they’ve received for each emoji.

The introduction of likes on Stories is expected to create a new way for users to engage with Stories, giving users and influencers a new means of measuring engagement on their Stories in the same way as their post. And this comes as the platform now allows users to hide like counts on their posts.

This latest test shows that Instagram is going to continue to focus on the idea of private likes, especially since likes on Stories are not visible to the public.