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Instagram made a richer story interface for desktops

Instagram made a richer story interface for desktops

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Instagram is making its Stories feature more complete on the desktop. In a small interface refresh today, the company is updating its Stories feature so that it opens up to show a carousel of videos, which previews what’s cued up next and the content that just played. From this interface, viewers can click on whatever story they want to watch. It’s sort of like if the tiny circles at the top of users’ feeds went bigger and full-screen.

This is a minor change, but it rounds out the desktop feature and makes it more appealing to use, especially as people are on their computers more frequently while working from home. For the most part, Instagram has left Stories unchanged for years. The format is the same as always, with posts being ephemeral.

Most of Instagram’s changes to the format come in the form of creative tools, like stickers for small businesses and new fonts. For now, Instagram’s firmly focusing on Reels, its TikTok competitor, with Stories receiving small updates to keep it fresh.