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| Instagram is testing vertical feed stories |
With the demand for traditional story formats declining, Instagram has tried to emulate another element of Tik Tok design through vertical feed stories.
These days, users scroll through stories horizontally, but the stories are now out of date, and even Snapchat borrowed ideas from Tik Tok since Spotlight is a Tik Tok clone.
Scrolling vertically appears more natural than scrolling horizontally in many ways because users of these sites navigate many websites.
It is also a method used for other main functions of various social applications, for example: Newsfeed via Facebook or YouTube homepage.
However, converting Instagram Stories to vertical feeds is a big change and could pave the way for removing more static content (like photos and uploaded feed posts) that still frequently fill the story area.
Instagram can prioritize video posts over images to better compete with TikTok through dynamic vertical stories, just as Instagram is currently tweaking the algorithm and overall design to prioritize roles.
The screenshot shows a simple user interface with the following text: You can now scroll up and down through Stories using the big blue button titled "Vertical Story".
Instagram has confirmed that the story vertical feed feature is under construction but not yet available to the public. A company spokesperson said: This is the first prototype and has not been tested by Instagram yet.
The prototype might not be released, but its presence shows an idea Instagram would better consider challenging Tik Tok.
Instagram today brings the competition Tik Tok Reels to their Instagram Explore page, Reels first.
Clicking on the Reels video will take you to a new UI where you can scroll the video vertically, similar to Tik Tok.
Header story feed can help standardize different Instagram feeds somewhat to match Reels' feed and original app feed. However, IGTV still works differently.