Have you noticed anything different when you head to your Instagram Stories to start swiping? Users around the world have been met with a pop up screen that alerts them they'll need to scroll instead of swipe to view their Stories. That's right. Instagram is introducing a vertical feed for Stories.
You may be thinking, "I feel like I've seen this somewhere else before." That's because you 100% have. First, you experienced it on TikTok, then Instagram stole it for Reels, and now they're applying the same kind of addictive scrolling experience to their Stories content.
Here's the weird part: instead of continuing the scroll motion to see the next Story from a user, you'll still tap on the right side of the screen to go forward and tap on the left side of the screen to go back. Only when you want to go to the next user's Stories will you scroll up. The tapping action within the scrolling action will definitely make the Instagram Stories experience feel different from your Reels feed.
We think that the removal of the "swipe up" feature on Instagram Stories happened because Instagram knew that they would eventually transition the Stories feed to a vertical scroll - making a swipe up motion for links incompatible with the Stories experience. Link stickers are the perfect solution. We're interested to see when link stickers will be available on Instagram Reels. We think it's only a matter of time.
Who Has Access to the Vertical Feed for Instagram Stories?
We're still experiencing the traditional stories feed on our Media À La Carte Instagram account and so are all of our clients. Instagram is testing the new feature across the world on a large scale, though. Which makes us think that the feature will be hitting all of our accounts sooner rather than later.
Instagram Stories Clips Will Be Capped at 60 Seconds
Instagram also recently announced that they wouldn't be breaking up video clips on Instagram Stories into 15 second segments. Instead, you'll be able to post 60 second long videos to your Instagram Stories.
Hmmm ... interesting that 60 seconds is also the same time cap as Instagram Reels. We think this is another move by Instagram that foretells a fully integrated video feed that will include Stories, Reels, and Feed Videos in one infinite feed - just like TikTok.
When we have access to the new vertical Instagram Stories feed, we'll be sure to update you about it here. Video really is taking over Instagram, and we all need to make sure our social strategies are prepared. For social support, reach out here.
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