Instagram is ramping up its Story feature as it attains popularity among content creators to share daily life updates. Insta users soon will be able to respond to Stories not just through like buttons and messages but through voice notes as well. The buzz is that the Meta-backed company is working on adding a new way of responding to ephemeral videos and images.

Developer Alessandro Paluzzi is known for reverse engineering apps that find new features and has reported that Instagram is working on a feature that will allow users to respond to Stories using voice messages.

The screenshots shared by Paluzzi on Twitter show the message reply box that we are all familiar with, but one shot features an image icon and another has a mic icon alongside the GIF icon that is already available. Understandably, if and when these features roll out, users will be able to tap on the image icon or the mic icon and react to a story with an image or a voice note.

Earlier in February, Instagram rolled out a feature that allowed users to like other users’ Stories without it becoming a DM. It added a heart icon on the side of the message box that can be tapped and instead of that becoming a DM and clogging up your inbox, users will just get a notification similar to the ones they get when others like their posts.

Until this feature rolled out, the only way to react to a Story on Instagram was to send a reaction, or a text, or pre-set GIFs, stickers, etc., to the user in the form of a DM from the reply box.

The new image reply feature will give users a new way to react to Stories and it also helps Instagram move a step closer to developing beyond just being a photo-sharing app.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri had mentioned in June last year that the platfrom was going to prioritise their movement towards becoming more than just a photo-sharing app. In a video shared on Twitter, Mosseri had said that the focus was going to be on four main areas – videos, shopping, messaging, and creators.