It’s safe to say that if you’re an avid Instagram user, you’ve probably wanted the convenience of being able to share a link on your Instagram Story with ease. Of course if your account is blue-ticked or if you have over 10,000 followers, you may share “swipe-up” links in your Stories conveniently.
Fortunately for us non-influencers with unverified accounts, Instagram has begun testing a new feature in the form of a sticker that lets users add links to their Instagram Stories. Much like the swipe-up ability, users may simply tap on a sticker showing a link symbol to visit links of their choice. Viewers will also have the option to reply to stories, an attribute notably missing from accounts with the swipe-up feature embedded.
With that being said, Instagram does not plan to extend this feature to other parts of the app, such as the feed. The social media titan explained that a major objective of this trial is to gather information on how individuals make use of links, while looking out for false information and spam.
As stickers have become integral to the Instagram experience, it makes sense that the company is targeting stickers to be used as the primary method to access external browsers in the near future. According to The Verge, the trial feature currently is available to selected users with a substantial audience.
Once we are able to attach link stickers in our stories, it is going to be very convenient, especially if you are a content creator and are constantly asking followers to visit websites or even other social media platforms. This feature would greatly benefit stories with call-to-action components as well.
Currently, a common method to get people to click on external links from Instagram is by inserting a link in one’s bio. Hootsuite recently released a hack for users to use the swipe-up feature in their stories, though it is worth noting that this method only works if you post IGTV videos.
