Ig Stories appear at the top of the screen, in the form of circles showing the avatars of the authors' accounts. Your account name is listed below. Only stories posted by followed accounts are accessible. To scroll through them, just move the screen to the left. Stories that have not yet been viewed are marked with a colored circle.
To view a Story, simply press the desired circle to activate the full screen view of the content. The Instagram Story unfolds by itself , lasting a few seconds. Starting in 2023, videos in Stories can be up to 60 seconds long. If you record or upload a video longer than 60 seconds, the footage will automatically be split into several different stories.
The user can:
- switch from one content to another by swiping the screen left or right,
- lock the story by holding your finger on the screen,
- navigate through a video by holding your finger and swiping it sideways,
- swipe up to return to the News Feed.
Until recently, Ig Stories , unlike normal posts, could not be appreciated with hearts, but one had to limit oneself to adding a reaction (via an emoji) or sending a message to its author (via private messaging) by swiping down the screen. Since February 2022, however, this has become possible.
A Story can contain text and mention other clickable accounts (up to ten) - a great way to bring relevant partners, influencers or simply users to the fore.
Instagram Stories can be accessed beyond the allowed 24 hours through the Stories Highlights tool: these featured stories appear in a dedicated section of the user profile, under the bio. This allows them to have permanent visibility and to acquire continuous traffic.