Recently, Instagram has been testing out timers on stories to increase engagement. This will get more people to watch the story before the limiting time, hence increases engagement.
Based on the screenshots posted by Kyle Harris and retweeted by Matt Navarra, Instagram is now displaying a timer below each story bubble which will indicate how long the story will stay before it ends.
This is how more people will rush to view the stories before their expiry time. Although, the proper working of these timers is still not clear. Overall, it will help in boosting interaction rates.
According to the report, if someone posted a story at 9 am and later the same evening that person posted another story at 9 pm. What time will actually be displayed below the story? The remaining time before the story expires or the time at which the story was uploaded. This can be a bit complicated. Whatever the case is, the motive is to attract more people to view stories to boost engagement. Timing does not matter, the urge to call more people by representing the end time of a story is the reason behind this update.
Another fact to note that the stories do not appear in sequential order. This was revealed by another user who commented on the same thread.
Well, for now, it is completely impossible to tell whether it is a positive thing or a negative. But one thing for sure that this will help Instagram to boost engagement on stories. One of the bad effects it will impose on people is anxiety. As users will be more anxious to see their friend’s stories within a limited time. In this way, it will add an element of FOMO within people. It will force more people to check stories more often, hence it may have addictive side-effects.
The experience totally depends on your point of view. But either way, this update is an interesting concept that will have a huge impact on story engagement statistics. More insights into this feature are not yet revealed.
Read next: Instagram tests the options of a default audience for Facebook, showing your other accounts and recommendation of a Reel on Facebook
Based on the screenshots posted by Kyle Harris and retweeted by Matt Navarra, Instagram is now displaying a timer below each story bubble which will indicate how long the story will stay before it ends.
This is how more people will rush to view the stories before their expiry time. Although, the proper working of these timers is still not clear. Overall, it will help in boosting interaction rates.
According to the report, if someone posted a story at 9 am and later the same evening that person posted another story at 9 pm. What time will actually be displayed below the story? The remaining time before the story expires or the time at which the story was uploaded. This can be a bit complicated. Whatever the case is, the motive is to attract more people to view stories to boost engagement. Timing does not matter, the urge to call more people by representing the end time of a story is the reason behind this update.
Another fact to note that the stories do not appear in sequential order. This was revealed by another user who commented on the same thread.
Well, for now, it is completely impossible to tell whether it is a positive thing or a negative. But one thing for sure that this will help Instagram to boost engagement on stories. One of the bad effects it will impose on people is anxiety. As users will be more anxious to see their friend’s stories within a limited time. In this way, it will add an element of FOMO within people. It will force more people to check stories more often, hence it may have addictive side-effects.
The experience totally depends on your point of view. But either way, this update is an interesting concept that will have a huge impact on story engagement statistics. More insights into this feature are not yet revealed.
Read next: Instagram tests the options of a default audience for Facebook, showing your other accounts and recommendation of a Reel on Facebook
