Why Instagram Launched Comments in Stories for Users and Creators

The growth of private messages and closed groups has created a wave of change in social networks 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 Feed.” Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, said in a podcast episode with venture capitalist Harry Stebbings. “In fact, at one point a few years ago, I think we put the entire Stories team on messaging.”

One consequence of users spending more time in Instagram DMs is that there are fewer eyeballs for advertisers to target through the powerful Meta marketing platform. If this feature can successfully encourage users to start conversations within a Story rather than in DMs, they’ll be more likely to continue scrolling through Stories that display ads (a win for Instagram).

These comments exist as temporary conversations, as Stories are automatically deleted after 24 hours.

Some influencers are excited about the potential to build on the community in Stories and foster more conversations among their followers.

“It’s going to make Stories feel more like livestreaming, and I wonder if that’s where things are trending,” influencer Ariana Nathani said. “Obviously it’s going to keep people in the Stories feed for a lot longer, which I’m excited about as someone who posts more stories than posts to the feed.”

Influencer Anushka Purohit said they are excited about the feature because of how it will encourage more public conversations.

“I’m so looking forward to a feature like this because I’m always in a quandary whether I want to post something to my Story or Feed because I want there to be conversations about everything I post,” Purohit. said.

Instagram also started rolling out a new design for likes on posts and reels. With the new design, some likes appear as a floating heart next to a person’s profile picture. When a user taps the floating heart, they are sent to a DM chat with that person.