In February 2021, Instagram had confirmed that it was working on a new stories design feature that will allow to vertically scroll the stories. The change probably comes as an attempt to compete with TikTok, which already offers vertical scrolling in its app. As a result, Instagram has also been making Stories more focused on videos rather than static content.
Now the social network is finally testing the new feature in Turkey and Brazil. Up until now, the stories were only horizontally scrollable. However, with a vertical scroll, you can jump from one user’s story to another’s, while a horizontal swipe will toggle between different stories from the same user.
Here’s a look at how this feature will work.
🚨 Instagram is testing a vertical swipe stories feed in Turkey
h/t @yousufortaccom pic.twitter.com/KdJa9CTnTl
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) January 12, 2022
Back in December, Instagram was also testing an increased maximum limit for videos posted in stories, which went from 15 seconds to 60 seconds. Recently, the Meta-owned company has been rolling out multiple updates to enhance the user’s experience. It is also testing new ways to sort the feed and even an option to customize the profile grid the way you want it.
Since the feature is still in the testing phase, we cannot exactly say when it will roll out or whether it will roll out at all. It is possible that Instagram might decide against this feature after the testing phase.