Posted by Cameron Francis on 02 Jun , 2022 in News
Instagram has risen in popularity when it comes to social media marketing. With this in mind, Instagram has launched a new Stories UI over the past few weeks. The new UI, which is in testing, only displays a few frames on Stories posts, hiding the rest. For instance, some Stories are only displaying a few frames, accompanied by a “Show All” prompt on the top left side of the screen.
While Instagram is adamant that this feature is only in the development and testing phase with just a small number of users, marketers who have prioritised Instagram Stories may not be pleased by it; and, for good reason. Why?
Well, for starters, the “Show All” prompt on the top left side of the screen is easy to miss. This means that users are less likely to see the hidden frames – thus affecting their visibility. When asked about this, Instagram confirmed that the feature is in fact being tested on a small percentage of people. However, the social media platform did not confirm whether this feature is intended for all users.
In my opinion, I would say that this feature is linked to Instagram’s Reels-first focus. This approach has seen it test a new full-screen User Interface that incorporates Stories, Reels and feed posts in one stream.
One of the reasons behind the use of this new format might be that Instagram is looking to ensure that users continue to enjoy the vertical swiping experience. This is because, with Stories, users will see the frame count at the bottom of the screen, showing that they can see more by swiping left.
Another reason might be that Instagram is simply unable to make the Stories feature display more than just a few frames, from a technical standpoint.
Whichever way you look at it, this might not be the best way forward, especially considering that those latter frames, which require users to tap manually to see through, won’t get as many views going forward.
On the other hand, this might be a subtle push from the platform to get users to direct more focus on Reels instead – seeing as Reels are now the key growth element on the platform.
All in all, it is hard to know exactly where Instagram is going with all this as they have not provided further information about this change. However, it is clear that while the change is still in testing, it is bound to have a significant impact on content strategies.
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