Are you someone who hops onto Instagram every so often to check out new Stories? Is it a hassle scrolling through the single-file carousel looking for a particular story? Well, Instagram is currently testing a minor redesign of the Stories carousel to let you see updates from more users in one go.
The single row of scrollable Instagram Stories has now been replaced with a two-row carousel, as seen in the images below. The new redesign was shared by social media consultant Matt Navarra on Twitter earlier this week. Instagram seems to be testing the same with a select few users, who can now swipe through more Stories in a jiffy. But, it also takes a lot more space – dense arrangement than the previously minimal one – at the top of the feed.
Another feature test that may hard to swallow for many is the switcheroo between the DM and notification access icons. The DM icon can now be seen sitting in the bottom navigation bar while the activity icon is where the DM icon should be.
Currently, Instagram DMs are only a left-swipe away from the home feed, thus, making it super accessible to the users. Its placement on the navigation bar is not bad but takes away from the existing experience. This test has been around for quite a long time now. I’ve seen it around 6-odd months ago and it seems to be limited to select users as only one of the screenshots has this interface.
Instagram Stories, even though it was cloned from Snapchat, has gone to become one of the most used features of the photo-sharing app. The company gives users access to a host of camera features and integrations to make the most out of their daily updates on Stories.
