Introducing the new chat sticker in Stories. Now, there's an easy way to start conversations with a group of friends right from your story. pic.twitter.com/A1An7d9TjJ — Instagram (@instagram) July 2, 2019

Instagram is promoting the "join chat" sticker as a new way to connect with friends, and while Instagram may have killed plans for a dedicated Direct messaging app, it's clear that both DMs and Stories are important to the platform. It's been steadily rolling out changes -- like a revamped Explore section that includes Stories and a donation sticker. It's likely we'll see more updates along these lines in the near future.