In the immortal words of Derek Zoolander (who would definitely have liked Instagram), “who am I?”
Instagram is considering another major change to its platform. It works on a prototype of the Stories feed that scrolls vertically, such as TikTok.
Facebook, which owns Instagram, confirmed the new project to TechCrunch, which only reported the story after developer Alexander Puzzi posted a photo of the prototype on Twitter.
Puzzi told TechCrunch that he found the option while researching Instagram’s backend code and that it was not yet available.
A Facebook company spokesman also confirmed the feature via email to Mashable, emphasizing that it is in the development phase.
“This is an early prototype and is not functional. This is not something we are currently testing on Instagram,” the Facebook spokesman said.
Currently, users browse Instagram stories horizontally, tap or swipe the right side of the screen to move forward or the left side to go backward. In contrast, the feed of TikTok is vertical, so users swipe up to go to the next content. Not so coincidentally, the dedicated Reels feed from Instagram (Reels is the version of TikTok on Instagram) is vertically oriented, as are the headlines for posts.
Reviewing stories to browse is not the only major change that could possibly come to Instagram. It also follows the platform’s most important redesign of the home screen from less than three months ago. In the change, Instagram created the Reels tab and literally put it in front and in the middle. The change was a transparent attempt to give Reels a boost after people were mostly just confused about the new format.
According to reports, Instagram is also considering doing away with the ability to share feed messages with stories. This would be another important change in the platform, as stories have become the main way people share content from other users in their profiles.
What’s up with all the tampering, Instagram? It’s almost as if the attempts to import TikTok’s entire short-form viral video content ~ thing ~ into a platform for the purpose of sharing photos are not as easy as planned!
As TechCrunch noted, the vertical format of Stories could be a first step in unifying Instagram’s video content. Currently, postings, stories, Reels and IGTV all offer videos. There are too many options, and then too much redundant content has to be redistributed in various parts of Instagram.
Plus, if Stories get closer to the same format as Reels, they could eventually merge into one feed. This will send more people to Reels, which is great from an advertising perspective, because Reels generates an endless amount of reckless consumable content – not just content from the people you follow.
Is Instagram losing itself in its efforts to keep up with TikTok? No, that happened a long time ago.
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