Just when we thought Instagram had lost all of its authenticity, the developers proved us wrong. Because there is still some essence of Tiktok that it has yet to acquire. And with this new feature in development, that day isn’t far away.
Facebook-owned Instagram confirmed the news that it is working on introducing “Vertical Stories” into the app.
For years, we’ve been mindlessly swiping horizontally right or tapping to hopefully get into the next interesting content; now, we might just mindlessly swipe “vertically.” Does this remind you of some other app? Yes, Tiktok has the exact same feature wherein you can view videos by vertically swiping.
This new feature was spotted by Alessandro Paluzzi, who shared the screenshot on his Twitter account. In the screenshot, a simpler user interface is shown with a text that reads “Now you can swipe up and down to browse stories” and a big blue button labeled “Vertical Stories”
He told TechCrunch that he explored it through Instagram‘s code and that it is not live yet. Following this, Instagram confirmed to TechCrunch that such a feature is indeed being built, but it is not available to the public yet. The company spokesperson said, “This is an early prototype and is not currently testing on Instagram,”
Lately, Instagram has become an amalgamation of Tiktok and Snapchat, and the latest feature, “Reels,” has been quite a sensation. Reels was introduced into the app as a direct competitor for Tiktok’s short videos craze. Reels option is right in front of the Explore page, and when clicked on it, it directs you to a user interface that is similar to its rival company.
While the main feed of Instagram and Reels does have a vertical swiping feature already, Stories still have to be navigated through swiping horizontally.
The newest feature obviously makes sense as most of our scrolling is done vertically; therefore it comes naturally. However, mimicking ideas or features like these is just adding more to the cluster. As of now, Instagram has Reels, Stories, IGTV along with its original- posting “Instagram-able” pictures and videos.
But with the new Vertical Stories, Reels and videos will be given more priority than pictures alone.
Although it is just a prototype at this stage, it may or may not get implemented for the general public. But the pattern is evident enough to see where Instagram is heading at.