The swipe up in Instagram Stories has had its day. As of August 30, the network plans to bury the feature and replace it with a link sticker.
Posting external links on Instagram has always been a not-so-simple affair. Links in the caption of a post cannot be clicked on and have to be awkwardly added to one’s profile via the “Link in bio” notice.
Also in the Stories, links could not be posted just like that until now. The swipe-up function was previously reserved for business accounts or profiles with more than 10,000 followers.
But now Instagram wants to bury its Swipe Up. The popular feature is to be replaced by a sticker, as Instagram confirmed to The Verge.
Bye bye Swipe Up, hello link sticker
On August 30, Instagram is retiring its Swipe Up. In the future, users will be able to insert external links in their Stories via a sticker.
With this change, the network wants to simplify the creation of Stories. In addition, there should be more design options.
This is because the link sticker – like the Mention or Location stickers, for example – can be adapted to the user’s taste. This was not possible with the Swipe Up until now. Instagram wants to give its users more “creative control”.
Until now, users could only design their Swipe Ups using GIFs. Over the years, a large library has accumulated here, but this is now likely to become obsolete.
Instagram expects more interactions from the link sticker
Instagram has already been testing the new feature since June. More users had access to the link sticker – no longer just accounts that could swipe up.
The link sticker also has the advantage that followers can react to a story with a link. This was not possible with the Swipe Up, because it took up space at the bottom of the screen for messages.
When the Link Sticker is rolled out on August 30, only accounts that have already been able to post Swipe Ups will have access for the time being. However, it is “still being evaluated” whether the link ticker will also be activated for other profiles.
Instagram now wants to test whether the decision for the link sticker was right, a spokesperson tells The Verge.
