Social media platforms often draw inspiration from their peers. One such feature is Stories that were first introduced by Snapchat but have become a part of almost all social platforms, including LinkedIn.
Until now, these stories could be horizontally scrolled on most applications apart from TikTok, which followed a vertically scrollable pattern. Now, Instagram is reportedly getting inspired by this and is working on vertically scrollable stories which work best with the design of the modern-day smartphones.
Even the feed on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube are vertically scrollable thus sideways scrolling stories are slightly odd on these platforms.
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The fact that Instagram is testing this new feature was first spotted by a mobile app developer, and since it is still under development, he had to unearth the feature by digging deep into the codes of the application. As of now, it is not available for everyone to test out.
#Instagram is working on Vertical Stories 👀Swipe up and down to browse stories. pic.twitter.com/LDJje8l137February 2, 2021
Instagram, on the other hand, has confirmed that it is indeed working on such a feature and told TechCrunch, “This is an early prototype and is not currently testing on Instagram.”
That said, Instagram already has Reels – its version of TikTok-styled short video sharing feature that made its debut right after TikTok was banned in India. Then there is IGTV, Stories and the Feed itself where a user can post video content thus confusing a user with way too many avenues to post similar content on one platform.
In a related piece of news, Instagram is introducing another tool called – Recently Deleted to help users restore content that has been deleted erroneously or even by choice. This recycle bin of sorts will also protect user content in case a hacker takes over the account and deletes all the content. All the deleted content like photos, videos, reels, IGTV videos and stories will be stored in a Recently Deleted folder for 30 days before being permanently removed from the platform. The exception here would be stories that automatically gets deleted in 24 hours, if not archived.
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