After a long time as an almost privileged function, the swipe up disappears from Instagram to make way for the links in the stories.

In order to keep you up to date with everything that’s happening in the social media world, we want to tell you all the details of this latest Instagram update, so keep reading because this new tool will be very useful for your brand!

Goodbye to swipe up, welcome to link stickers

That’s right, Instagram has finally made our requests come true and has removed the famous swipe up from the stories to make way for a similar feature that we can use all mortals, without the need to have a large number of followers.

This feature, known as “swipe up” or “swipe up”, allowed links to be added to stories. Therefore, people who wanted to share a website through their stories could do so by simply selecting the widget and typing the link.

This feature has allowed businesses and creators to direct viewers of their stories to a website where they could learn more about a product, read an article, or sign up for a service. Instead of the swipe up call to action, Instagram users who previously had access to the feature will now be able to use a new link sticker. This sticker will be able to be placed anywhere on the screen and will display the name of the link so the user can tell which website it will redirect to. Instead of swiping up, people will just have to tap on the sticker.

Instagram’s new link sticker will be available to everyone

Instagram mentioned that mainly the link stickers will appear on accounts that already had the “swipe-up” feature. That is, those users who have verification or who accumulate more than 10,000 followers. However, Instagram is testing this sticker for all accounts, and best of all, you won’t need to have more than 10,000 followers or a verified account to be able to add links to your stories.

This innovative update has been in the works since June, when in a quick test Instagram decided to make stickers available to its users, who apparently responded appropriately to what they proposed, ensuring that stickers are more in line with how people currently use the platform, as they are everywhere, and according to tests conducted by Instagram, users tend to click more on stickers since they are familiar with them. However, not everyone who uses Instagram knows how to Swipe Up or what it’s for.

A streamlined story creation experience

As you can see, the update comes to improve the user experience within the app because on the one hand it will allow you to include a more prominent location for your links within the stories, which could attract a greater number of clicks and focus more on this action.

However, swiping up has become commonplace, which will likely take longer to change user behavior around external links in stories.

In any case, we need time to see what potential the new link stickers will have, especially when Instagram claims that integrity and safety are the key focus behind this change, as they plan to review the links users share with this feature to make sure they don’t become another method of spreading fake news and spam.

The introduction of link stickers will be done gradually. The platform is also considering completely removing the swipe up function, as it is still available in stories in the form of ads.

Other important updates for stories

Within the new updates that could come in the future, Instagram would be trying to change aspects such as:

• Sliding stories up: The app is testing a vertical feed for its stories. Instead of scrolling stories from one side to the other, it would be scrolling up or down. Kind of like the content on TikTok.
• Not being able to share posts in stories: Instagram is testing, in some regions, the possibility of removing the option to share posts from profiles in stories. Why? Because Instagram understands that it is duplicate content, since if you see the stories it is because you follow that account and you can also see the posts in the feed. However, there is the dilemma that there are many posts that we find out about because they have been shared in the stories, since not many people look at the timeline. According to Instagram, many users complained about this duplicity of content and, therefore, they are testing it.
• Sharing tweets in Instagram Stories: Twitter has announced that they are testing the possibility of sharing tweets in Instagram Stories. These tests will decide if it will finally reach all users.
• Time remaining on stories: Instagram is working on displaying the time remaining on stories. This would increase the consumption of stories by the psychological and magical trick of urgency: either you see it now or you miss it. And our brain doesn’t want to miss anything.

Now that you know how to implement this new Instagram feature, you just have to get to work, and contact us for advice with our team of professionals in digital marketing. Remember that at Cute Digital Media we are ready to take your business to the next level, we have all the tools you need to grow your social networks!