New to Instagram Stories: Boomerang, Mentions, and “See More” Links

Last month, Instagram Stories reached over 100 million daily active users, just after two months of launching. We’ve seen our friends, favorite influencers, brands and local businesses start to use Instagram Stories in its Snapchat-like fashion to show everyday content ranging from behind the scenes to a simple glimpse into an individual’s or company’s daily life.

Instagram just announced three new features for its Stories format: Boomerang integration, user account mentions, and links for verified accounts. Below is a breakdown of of each:

1. Boomerang integrated into Stories

If you’re not familiar with Boomerang, it’s a burst of photos that instantly stitches them together into a mini video that plays forward and backward). For regular Instagram posts, you’re forced to use the Boomerang app separately to create the mini video that plays backwards and forwards. Now, the Boomerang format is integrated directly into Stories. Just open up Instagram > tap your picture at the top (or the + to add to your existing Story) > tap “Boomerang” on the camera screen > press and hold to record, and that’s it!

2. Mention other users in Stories

For mentions, it will work the same as it does in captions and comments. After you create your Story, choose the text tool and type “@” followed by the username you want to mention. Once the Story is posted, your followers will be able to click into the person’s profile that you tagged. If you are tagged, you’ll receive a notification that will direct you right to their story if you follow that person, if you don’t, it will pop up in message requests. You can pinch and expand the text to make the username text as small or as large as you’d like.

3. “See More” Links in Stories (verified users only for now)

Verified accounts have the ability to add a “See More” link at the bottom of Stories. The link can direct users to any website, allowing them to dig deeper or learn more about something. Expect to see accounts encourage users to watch a video, read an article, purchase a product, or discover something new. We’ll likely see this “See More” link feature come to all accounts soon, but expect Stories to be a new way to get people to come to your website.

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