Instagram Stories established a new paradigm by inserting short and ephemeral videos into a platform that was predominantly photos. In recent months, however, even the network's boss has declared that the social network should increasingly focus on moving images, which is why so many new features have videos as their premise.
It is currently possible to respond to a Story with a quick emoji reaction, which is sent to the creator as a DM, or type a direct response, which is also delivered to the message box. What is being tested now is a specific like button. Check it out below:
Actually you can put a like multiple times ?? pic.twitter.com/uPEa2gmgnm
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) August 23, 2021
If this is true, a new engagement measurement metric could be under analysis by the platform's developers, which would help reinforce the power of Stories. “Like” is something very important for the Instagram algorithm applied to the feed, but it had no impact on temporary videos, whose focus was viewing.
Feed, Reels and Explore have their own metrics to deliver relevant content, with different directions. In Stories, the viewing metric is already effective, after all, a complete and recurring audience means identification with the content, which is why it is difficult to understand what the purpose of the Like would be.
The new button should appear next to the message field (if it is launched as in the experiment), where the story forwarding icon (the paper airplane) is currently located. Due to the test development stage, it is speculated that the new option should reach users soon, although some doubts about the entire operating dynamics still remain.
