A new feature for InstagramStories encourages community — the company doesn’t just want this activity to happen in closed groups away from advertisers.
The social media behemoth is launching a new tool that lets users post comments under their followers. Stories. Only followers can see these comments, and only people the user follows can comment. Users can also turn off the feature.
The rise of Private messaging and closed groups has created a wave of change across social media and has particularly influenced the posting behavior of users. This new tool, for example, combines two of Gen Z’s favorite features: stories and DM.
“If you look at how teenagers spend their time on Instagram, they spend more time in DMs than in Stories, and they spend more time in Stories than in the feed,” Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, said on a podcast episode with venture capitalist Harry Stebbings. “Actually, at one point a few years ago, I think I put the entire Stories team on messaging.”
One result of users spending more time in Instagram DMs is that there are fewer eyeballs for advertisers to target. Metas powerful marketing platform. If this feature can successfully encourage users to start conversations in a Story instead of a DM, they’ll continue to swipe through Stories that show ads (a win for Instagram).
These comments exist as temporary conversations because Stories are auto-deleted after 24 hours.
Some influencers are excited about the prospect of building community within Stories and fostering greater conversation among their followers.
“It feels like livestreaming stories and I wonder if that’s where things are trending,” the influencer said. Ariana Nathani. “It’s obviously going to keep people in the Stories feed longer, which I’m excited about for people who post more Stories than in-feed posts.”
Influencer Anushka Purohit said they are excited about the feature because of how it will encourage more public conversations.
Purohit “I’ve been waiting for this kind of feature for so long because I want to post something on my story that I’m always confused on my feed because I want a conversation about whatever I post. ” said.
Instagram has also started rolling out a new design for likes on posts and reels. With the new design, certain likes appear as a floating heart next to a person’s profile photo. When a user taps a floating heart, it is sent to a DM chat with that person.
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