As per an official confirmation to TechCrunch, Instagram is working on a TikTok-style Vertical Stories Feed feature. This would allow users to scroll through the stories with vertical up and down swipes, similar to what you can do on TikTok.
It is not a hidden fact that in the recent past, Instagram has ported (safe to say “copied”) a bunch of features from TikTok. Instagram Reels is one of the popular concepts that was copied when TikTok was facing challenges in countries like India.
Instagram cashed in the opportunity to compete with TikTok and it very well paid off. Now, the social media giant wants no stones unturned to emulate another TikTok feature for Instagram with Vertical Stories feed.
A code has been spotted by developer Alessandro Paluzzi, which shows that the new vertical stories feature is already in development.
The screenshot shared by Alessandro shows a simple interface with text that reads, “Now you can swipe up and down to browse stories.” Additionally, there is a big blue button labeled “Vertical Stories.”
However, these new Instagram Vertical Stories feed feature is not live for anyone nor it is being tested. A company spokesperson confirmed TechCrunch saying, “This is an early prototype and is not currently testing on Instagram.”
That is pretty much it at the moment. But it shows Instagram’s commitment to bring freshness and new features to the platform, now and then.
Vertical Stories feed will unify Instagram Stories and Reels experience
We have gotten accustomed to vertical scrolling. Because it feels more natural than tap or horizontal swipes. Stock Android OS also presents the list of apps in a vertical list.
Besides, we also scroll vertically to navigate on web pages, and other social media apps like Facebook feeds or YouTube’s home page. Adopting vertical scrolling for Stories will help unify Instagram’s various feeds.
FYI, Instagram Reels are also vertically scrollable. And by introducing Vertical Stories feed will unify the experience of all the features within the app.
IGTV will be the only feature that will stay untouched. As the videos on IGTV are meant for the vertical grid in profiles. They turn to horizontal navigation once you start watching them.
Moreover, as noted by our source, after introducing the Vertical Stories feed, Instagram may very well prioritize video posts over photos. This could be done in order to compete with TikTok.
One should remember, on previous occasions as well, Instagram has tweaked its algorithms to promote videos shared on the platform. All this is done in order to improve user engagement and attract more users who use platforms like TikTok.
#Instagram is working on Vertical Stories 👀
Swipe up and down to browse stories. pic.twitter.com/LDJje8l137— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) February 2, 2021