Soon, you may be able to scroll through a vertical feed of Stories on Instagram. If this sounds familiar, it's because TikTok already does it.
Instagram Confirms a Vertical Story Feed Prototype
In a TechCrunch report, Instagram confirmed that it's working on a prototype of a vertical Stories feed. This means that you might be able to swipe vertically through Stories, instead of having to swipe to the left or right.
The feature was first uncovered by Alessandro Paluzzi, a mobile developer. He shared his findings on Twitter, displaying an Instagram screenshot that reads, "now you can swipe up and down to browse stories."
#Instagram is working on Vertical Stories 👀
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) February 2, 2021
Swipe up and down to browse stories. pic.twitter.com/LDJje8l137
The vertical Story feed may never hit Instagram, but it still shows just how much inspiration the platform is taking from TikTok. TikTok relies on an endless vertical stream of videos, something that Instagram likely hopes to mimic.
But if the vertical Story feed ever gets released on Instagram, it will complement Instagram's existing features quite nicely, as virtually everything on Instagram employs a vertical feed already.
Everyone Just Wants to Be Like TikTok
Social media giants haven't been shy about emulating TikTok's best features. Instagram unveiled Reels, its own take on short-form content, while Snapchat did the same with Spotlight.
If social media platforms continue down this road, they might just end up becoming clones of one another.
