🔍 Zoom in on Instagram Stories

Instagram is developing a new feature that will allow you to zoom in on a Story with a photo or video

The feature also works for Highlights and Archived Stories. Curiously, the feature also works for Live, even though it's not clear whether it should work there

To zoom in on the story, you will need to pinch using two fingers

🔎 Minor changes to the Stories viewer

Instagram is working on small improvements to the Story viewer
So, the Message bar may change from a stroke to a solid fill with lil transparency

How significant are these changes and do you like the new look?

ℹ️ By the way, in the early versions of testing this new view, the message box had a blur, as it has long been implemented on the ios version of the app, but later the blur was removed 🙃

💬 Comments on Stories

Instagram is developing a new (one more) way of interacting with Stories, so we will be able to leave Comments on Stories

On the left side from the Reply bar, you will see a 💬 Comment icon, and by tapping on it, you can leave a comment that will be visible just on the Story viewer

In fact, this is not the first time Instagram has tried to implement comments in Stories, as in the past they have already tested the ability to leave comments, but the feature was not launched

However, Instagram has recently resumed their attempts to add a new way of interaction, and we will only know whether this feature will be introduced only with time

The last screenshot shows that the feature is still at an early stage of development 🧑‍💻

🚀 Boost Mode in Stories

Instagram is working on a feature that will allow you to Fast Forward media in Stories

By tapping the ⏩ button in the lower right corner, the Story Viewer will move slightly away and the media will switch to the Fast Forward mode

Fast Forward works for both videos and photos, but in different ways. Videos are accelerated by a multiple, while pictures are reduced in duration

However, the boost you see in the video is applied ⚙️ manually to illustrate how the feature works, as instagram didn't set testing values for this feature.
So, if the feature gets rolled out, the boost speed may be different

• At this stage of development, the user doesn't have the option to select the Boost speed

• 🔇 Also, when the Fast Forward mode is enabled, the sound in Stories is muted as well

• Fast Forward mode can also stay active when stories is moved to the next account

🤞Hopefully, Instagram will come to implement this feature and also introduce it to other types of video content on the app

💬 Instagram keeps working on Comments in Stories

There are a few minor changes: 🔍

• A screen layout for posting comments has been updated

• Added a defined space to show comments, where 3-4 comments can be visible at a time

• To view other comments, use basic scrolling

ℹ️ The Story Creator will also receive notifications in the Activity tab when comments are added, but for now they look exactly like comments under posts

⏩ Browsing Mode in Highlights Stories

Instagram is 🧑‍💻 working on additional functionality for Highlights that will give you the ability to «run your eyes through» all the Stories in the current Highlight by tapping the appropriate icon

You will 🕵‍♂ see a row of preview thumbnails of all the Stories in the selected Highlight at the bottom of the screen, so you can quickly navigate between the Stories by simply sliding them left or right

☝ This will help you quickly figure out which Story you're most interested in and move to it directly, making it easier to navigate, especially if there are a bunch of Stories in the Highlights

ℹ Only works for Hightlights and doesn't apply to Stories