Instagram seems to be working on a new option for story reactions, which would allow users to see reactions to their stories within the story frame and not separately in the DMs.
How story reactions generally work for now on Instagram is that when a user reacts to your story with an emoji, the emoji would separately appear in your message chat with that user.
Alessandro Paluzzi spotted the new reaction option that Instagram is apparently testing, but it still doesn’t reveal how exactly the new process will work in terms of showing story reactions right on the stories.
#Instagram is working on the ability to react to Stories without sending a message 👀 pic.twitter.com/Sl8saTpWzi
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) October 30, 2020
Moreover, Paluzzi observed that new animations for reactions would also be introduced.
Only after Instagram officially rolls out the new additions, can we see how its user community reacts to them, but for now we can just wait to hear from the company itself.