In the immortal words of Derek Zoolander (who would definitely have loved Instagram), “who am I?”
Instagram is considering yet another major change to its platform. He is working on a prototype of the Stories feed that rolls vertically, like TikTok.
Facebook, owner of Instagram, confirmed the new project for TechCrunch, which reported the story for the first time after developer Alexander Puzzi posted a photo of the prototype on Twitter.
Puzzi told TechCrunch that he found the option by examining Instagram’s backend code, and that it is not yet live.
A Facebook company spokesman also confirmed the use of Mashable by email, noting that it is in the early stages of development.
“This is an initial prototype and is not functional. It is not something we are currently testing on Instagram,” said the Facebook spokesman.
Currently, users scroll Instagram stories horizontally, tapping or sliding the right side of the screen to move forward or the left side to move backward. In contrast, the TikTok feed is vertical, so users swipe up to go to the next piece of content. Not coincidentally, the dedicated Reels feed from Instagram (Reels is the Instagram version of TikTok) is vertically oriented, as is your main posts feed.
Reorienting the Stories scroll is not the only big change coming to Instagram. It also follows the major redesign of the platform’s home screen for less than three months. In this change, Instagram created the Momentos tab and literally placed it in front and in the center. The move was a transparent attempt to boost the Reels, after people were confused about the new format.
Instagram is also considering ending the ability to share feed posts with stories. This would be another significant change to the platform, as stories have become the primary way for people to share content from other users on their profiles.
What’s up with all these adjustments, Instagram? It’s almost as if attempts to import all short viral video content from TikTok to a platform with the pre-existing purpose of sharing photos are not going as easily as planned!
As TechCrunch points out, the vertical format of Stories can be a first step towards unifying Instagram video content. Currently, posts, stories, Reels and IGTV host videos. There are many options and then many redundant needs to re-share the content on various parts of Instagram.
In addition, if the Stories approach the same format as the Moments, it is possible that they may eventually merge into a feed. This would send more people to Reels, which is great from an advertising point of view, as Reels generates an infinite amount of consumable content irrationally – not just content from the people you follow.
In your attempts to keep up with TikTok, is Instagram getting lost? Nah, that happened a long time ago.
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