Instagram Experiments With Collaborative Stories Feature

After adding its engagement-focused Blend option for Reels sharing last week, Instagram is also working on another way to encourage more interaction, this time within Stories.

As you can see in this example, posted by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, Instagram’s experimenting with a new Stories element called “Storylines”, which are essentially collaborative Stories built by you and your connections in the app.

As per IG’s overview, with Storylines, friends that you follow back would be able to “link a new, related story to your story,” building a larger narrative from an event.

So say, for example, that you both go to a party or a concert, your friends would be able to add to your Story from that event with their own, related content, building a bigger Story from your initial update.

These collaborative Stories would then be viewable by their connections (if you’re posting publicly), enabling even more people to add to the Story chain, building a broader, multi-perspective narrative, and boosting exposure for each creator taking part. And if you’re not posting publicly, non-followers would still be able to see that you’ve added to a Story, but not the content, which could also encourage more people to connect.

It’s another way for IG to encourage more interaction and participation, which IG chief Adam Mosseri noted would be a key focus for the app this year. Because the way that people interact on IG has changed a lot, and now, virtually all of the connection and engagement in the app comes via DMs or Stories.

As such, Instagram’s looking to make these elements event stickier, in a bid to capitalize on its strengths (versus TikTok), and further embed itself as a key connective tool, in addition to an entertainment app.  

So will that work?

Well, in the case of Blend, which is a combined feed of recommended Reels for you and your friends, that takes out a valuable curation and gifting element, which I don’t think will prove as valuable for most users.

In this instance, with Storylines, there does seem to be potential for larger, grouped Stories, which could also help people to connect with others who have related interests.

Of the two, I’d be picking this one to succeed, though it’s not in live testing as yet, and Instagram might not ever actually launch it.

We’ll keep you informed of any updates.