(Pocket-lint) – Instagram’s Stories feature has been a hit for the platform, with many users exclusively using the Stories feed and ignoring traditional Instagram posts altogether.
Now, there are reports that Instagram may be tweaking the way in which Stories are shown in the feed.
A Brazillian Instagram user, Phil Ricellenoticed that his stories feed was only showing the first three Stories shared by people that he follows.
Currently, users can post up to 100 Stories per day, and followers will either have to tap through all of them or swipe to the next Story.
With the new update, Instagram will only show three Stories and the viewer must tap a “Show All” button to see more. Otherwise, Instagram will automatically skip to the next person’s Stories.
It’s an interesting move, and we can understand the logic, it will mean that viewers can get to the content they are interested in more quickly and only then opt in to diving deeper.
But for creators, it could be very frustrating and will almost certainly change the way in which the feature is used. They’ll see a sharp drop-off in viewership after the first three Stories and so will be incentivized to either keep their content to three Stories in total or shift important parts into the first three Stories.
Those accustomed to brushing up against the daily limit of 100 Stories will likely feel penalized by the change. It also makes content like Q & As, which frequently take place within Instagram’s Stories feature, less accessible.
As of today, it seems only a small number of people have received the update. So, we assume Instagram is testing how it works out before committing to a wider roll-out. We’ll be interested to see how it develops.
Writing by Luke Baker.
