Instagram is working on new ways to scroll through your stories feed so as to help people find relevant content stories that they will be interested in. Jane Manchun Wong, Reverse engineering expert posted an example of the tests, which enables users to scroll down the stories frame to see stories tray and then go through to each.
Instagram is working on a quick switch to other user’s Stories pic.twitter.com/rq2KBlmO4o
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) May 7, 2020
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Wong also stated that Instagram had tested another variation of the same feature in the past which reveals that they are in fact working on ways to help people go through their stories stream.
This option will add a different look to the stories and make it easier to navigate through. It is potentially a shift to a new phase of the news feed and navigation through media broadly. Facebook has been of the view over the past few years that stories will take over the news feed as the main source of engagement over social media.
The above chart is from 2018 which already states that stories will be used significantly for social engagements. Instagram finally may open to a full-screen stories view that users can swipe through to watch the latest. That will have major implications as how people use the app and will change focus from its photography. This new experiment is the first step along the path of stories taking over. Considering stories will take over the news feed Instagram might want to switch to stories as the primary function.
The rising trend of stories suggests that it will happen anyway and this experiment could be potential step along the way.