Instagram Spices Up Stories with Comments: A New Recipe for User Engagement
Instagram is dishing up a fresh way to keep users glued to their screens, and this time it's serving a hot dish of comments for Stories.
Some fortunate Instagram users are already seeing notifications for this new tantalising feature. According to the app itself, “you can now comment on Stories. Comments are visible to everyone who views the Story.”
Comments will appear at the bottom of the screen, conveniently situated above the controls and viewer information. Fear not, they won’t photobomb your carefully curated content. Think of it as a gentle nudge to get more people chatting about your Story updates.
It seems Instagram is keen to retain users within the app, especially as more and more folks are sliding into DMs for their daily dose of gossip. Instagram head Adam Mosseri remarked that users are now much more likely to comment on Stories and send more direct messages than they do in the main feed.
But wait, there’s more! Instagram is also cooking up other delightful treats to boost engagement. Remember “Notes”? That nifty little feature allowing users to leave conversation starters at the top of their inbox? Well, it's become a hit, especially among teens. In fact, teen users create “Notes” ten times more frequently than their older counterparts.
Comments in Stories appear to be cut from the same cloth as Notes, providing users with yet another avenue to spark conversations based on the shared content.
Of course, for those creators who prefer their Stories to remain untouched by the masses, there is an option to disable comments.
In conclusion, this update could very well be the secret sauce Instagram needs to enhance user engagement. More comments lead to more interactions, and consequently, greater connections within the app.