Instagram Is Working On A New Vertical Stories Feed

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Instagram has confirmed it is working on a new vertical Stories feed, giving its app more of a TikTok feel.

There is a point in time, where innovation disappears and little tweaks are all we have to look forward to. This time may have come for Instagram.

Instagram did not invent the Stories format, it took it from Snapchat. And now the app is looking to its new rival TikTok for ways to increase engagement and retention: vertical scrolling.

And that is a smart move. Vertical scrolling feels a lot more natural than taps and horizontal swipes for a format like Stories. Even on desktops, we are used to scrolling up and down to view more content.

The new vertical stories feed was first spotted by Alessandro Paluzzi, who shared a screenshot on Twitter. It was later confirmed by Instagram who explained it was currently being worked on with no guarantees that it would ever be released to the wider user base:

“This is an early prototype and is not currently testing on Instagram.”

#Instagram is working on Vertical Stories 👀
Swipe up and down to browse stories. pic.twitter.com/LDJje8l137
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) February 2, 2021

Paluzzi’s screenshot shows a simple user interface with text that reads: “Now you can swipe up and down to browse stories“ and then a big, blue button labeled “Vertical Stories.”

Switching to vertical scrolling for Stories would be a major move for Instagram, which would in turn, likely make Stories the predominant format on the app.