Instagram is secretly rolling out a MAKEOVER for the app – with Stories that replace your feed. INSTAGRAM is said to be planning a 'makeover' that will see Stories take more of a central role on the app.
The company is testing out showing two rows of Stories instead of one and a “See All Stories” button that see Stories take over the screen.
This feature was spotted by California-based social media manager Julian Gamboa.
He posted screenshots of the new layout to Twitter.
Instagram reportedly confirmed to TechCrunch that it was trialing this new look on a small number of users.
The test has been live for over a month now.
Users who have the feature will see a larger Stories section on their main feed rather than the standard single row of Stories at the top.
They can then expand Stories so they take up the screen by clicking the small grey "See All Stories" button that is underneath the usual Stories section.
Facebook, which owns Instagram, previously said that Stories was one of its biggest growth areas.
Millions of advertisers now use Stories to promote their products.
This makes Facebook a lot of money.
As the new features are only at the test stage we don't yet know if they'll be rolled out to everyone.
A Facebook spokesperson told us: “We’re always testing new ways to improve the Instagram experience for our community."
Instagram – the key facts
Here's what you need to know...
Instagram is a social network for sharing photos and videos
It was created back in October 2010 as an iPhone-exclusive app
A separate version for Android devices was released 18 months later
The app rose to popularity thanks to its filters system, which lets you quickly edit your photos with cool effects
When it first launched, users could only post square 1:1 ratio images, but that rule was changed in 2015
In 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for $1billion in cash and stock
In 2018, some analysts believe the app is worth closer to $100billion
In October 2015, Instagram confirmed that more than 40billion photos had been uploaded to the app
And in 2018, Instagram revealed that more than a billion people were using the app every month
