The day has finally come—Instagram has slowly started testing the ability for all accounts to be able to use a link in their Instagram story. Huzzah! If you can hear us shouting from the rooftops, this news is the reason why.
Instagram is testing allowing anyone being able to link in their Instagram Story with stickers
Instead of using the handy dandy swipe up feature though, there will now be a sticker that people can tap to go to the link provided. With the sticker, people will also be able to still comment on the story, something you can’t currently do with a swipe up link.
Vishal Shah, Instagram’s head of product, told
The Verge the test is limited to a small number of accounts (if you’re one of the luck ones, we are very jealous of you!) to see how people utilize the links. This will also be a chance for them to keep an eye on what links are being used in case of spam or misinformation.
Now, if you’re asking yourself why stickers instead of the swipe up option? Stickers are something most users use every single day when creating a Instagram Story. Thus, the option is more user-friendly for all accounts and not another whole feature people will have to figure out.
Luckily for us all though, it appears that link stickers are a huge goal for Instagram, so it seems they finally listened to everyone who have cried out for link privileges over the years. For now, it appears that the test is only for those who have an active voice on Instagram. The accounts that have sticker link privileges currently are those who have an active audience and have high profile activity (people are clicking the link in their bio already). While we wish this change would happen overnight (maybe one day!), it’s a slow test and roll out to start looking forward to on the Instagram app.
Let us know what you think and how you’d use the sticker feature over on our Instagram! And if you want to up your Instagram game, learn how to
organically grow your following from our interview with Ben Leavitt.