- Instagram is testing a new story design, similar to Facebook stories.
- This changes the look of the story thumbnails from circular icons to rectangles that show a preview of the content within the story.
- The design change takes up more space at the top allowing less content to appear on the home feed.
The Stories section is a prominent feature across all of Meta’s apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. In terms of design, Story thumbnails and icons appear differently in each app. However, this seems to be changing as Instagram Stories is getting a design refresh to look more like Facebook Stories.
The new layout change was spotted in the latest beta for Instagram version 325.0.0.27.91 on Android by our Editor, Anmol Sachdeva. This looks like a server-side change. We tested the same version on other devices but they’re yet to get this design update.
As you can see from the screenshot above, the Stories section on Instagram previously displayed circular icons with a yellow-pink outline and the user’s profile picture inside. This design has been updated to use larger rectangular thumbnails that provide a sneak peek at the story’s content with the profile picture placed at the center.
The update makes Instagram Stories look strikingly similar to Facebook Stories, both featuring rectangular thumbnails with story previews. This change also increases the space Stories occupy on the app’s home feed, potentially reducing the amount of visible content at a time.
Given that it is a server-side change, it should arrive on your device anytime soon. Just make sure that you are running the latest beta for the Instagram app. It is also not clear when iOS users will get to experience it on their side of the app.
It appears that Meta intends to provide a consistent design language across all of its apps. Having become accustomed to the older look, this change is not an easy pill to swallow for me. It looks odd and takes up a lot of space for my preference. However, the fact that you can get a sneak peek of someone’s story without having to open it might be a big plus for many people.
What are your thoughts regarding this design change? Did you like the old design or are you onboard with the new one? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
