In February 2021, Instagram confirmed they were prototyping new stories designed with vertical scrolling, the platform is sharing the design with a small group of users for testing.

Some users and Turkey have received an Instagram update that brings vertical scrolling to stories. Well, stories from the same user can still be viewed by tapping the left or right side of the screen, jumping to the next user story requires a swipe down.

This is indeed a new way of scrolling to a news story, Instagram can maybe make a unique identity for itself as the vertical scrolling platform for stories. Until Other., social media platforms do the same.

This probably was an attempt to compete with TikTok which already offers vertical scrolling in it. Their app. Result Instagram also made stories more focused on videos rather than static content which is very normal considering they publicly announced that they were no longer just an image-sharing platform.

It also seems like they are testing new ways to sort the feed and even an option to edit the profile grid the way you want it. However, it is still unclear when or if these features will ever become Available.