Most of the time, we are used to swiping vertically on the social networks on our mobile devices like Facebook, Twitter, and of course, the super-popular TikTok. But some still use taps and horizontal flicks, like when you go through your Instagram Stories. But it looks like the Facebook-owned photo and video sharing platform is experimenting now with Vertical Stories. They are testing out with a small group what it will look like when you swipe vertically to go through your Stories feed.
The format of Instagram Stories was of course adopted from Snapchat a few years ago when it was the trendy thing for media platforms. But now that TikTok has taken over, everyone seems to want to replicate the success of the short-form video app by trying to borrow some of the elements that have made it go viral. This includes borrowing the vertical swiping action that TikTok users are used to.
Tech Crunch says that Instagram has confirmed that they are indeed building the Vertical Stories feature but it’s still being tested and will not be out to the public at this time. It has been spotted by some users and basically what it does is let you swipe up and down to browse stories. If they do introduce this new feature, it will probably shift the focus on videos if they really want to be able to compete with TikTok. Static content or photos and reshared Feed posts will still be there but video posts may be prioritized.
This isn’t the first time that Instagram has tried to replicate TikTok’s success. They recently released a feature called Reels which has now been added to the platform through the Instagram Explore page. It’s actually at the top in territories where Reels is available and users can post their videos in various places on the platform like the Feed, Stories, IGTV for longer content. But it seems to just be adding to the clutter of Instagram.
Vertical Stories feed on Instagram is still in the prototype stage so we don’t know if it will get to a public launch. We also don’t know how Reels will fit into it so we’ll have to wait and see.
