Swipe Up! Swipe Up to check out the Link!
The swipe-up feature will no longer be present on Instagram. Instagram is planning to replace this feature with stickers. Clearly, conversational stickers would engage and make it easy for users to interact.
Stickers convey a sense of emotion that does not any more limit it to just day to day conversations. Yes, stickers have come to play an additional role on Instagram that would lead to its increased prevalence.
The swipe-up feature was used to go to external web pages by swiping up. It will be no more from 30th August, as confirmed by Instagram.
Instead of swipe-up links, Instagram has brought link stickers on the app. These are tappable stickers, which people can share in their stories and it would take them to external links and websites.
Importance of swipe up feature in Instagram
Swipe feature is incredibly useful as it allows businesses to promote products, different posts, and sign-up pages. Once you click on the swipe-up link, you can explore external websites like YouTube videos or any pages.
You can add varieties of links to your story. You can add different links to your websites. It can be a blog post or a landing page and also can be a small piece of curated content that you can share with your followers.
Brand Partnerships: Input information on swipe-up links can also be about brand partnerships if in case it is a sponsored content. You were able to tag your business partner if you require.
New Feature Availability
Instagram officially ditched the swipe-up feature from August 30th. In place of Swipe up, Insta users and influencers can access newly added features of stickers.
Only those users who initially had the swipe-up feature added to their account can access this feature for one. The sticker had been in testing mode starting from June for a few users. But from August 30, it began to roll out to all the users broadly.
This will include all the creators and brands who were either verified or have the min required to count on Insta to get this feature.
Replacement with Sticker Feature and its added benefits
The new link Sticker had a couple of advantages over the older swipe-up feature.
For individuals who are just getting started, it offers great control over their stories.
Just like polls, questions, and location stickers, this link sticker allows you to toggle between different styles, resizing the stickers you want to use, placing them anywhere on the story for maximum engagement.
Also, a new added benefit is that now viewers will be able to react and reply to your posts that have sticker links attached to them. Same as it works to tell the story. Swipe up feature didn’t have this feature. Insta received feedback on it so that it noted it down and added in a sticker link feature.
Although, there is not much change on who can gain access to see more accounts in the long run. But yes, the decision to increase access is something important and Insta does not take it lightly. So, they might take their own sweet time to address the access part.
Sticker link is for sure the first route to broaden the access to the link-shared stories.
Currently, moving away through Insta stickers is more or less on the same path as Insta’s current creative direction. The new feature of the Sticker link will surely join others as well on the app, just like stickers for donations or music and polls.
Instagram Stickers Link Features
Stickers are a central part of the Stories creation experience, and Insta wants to streamline how people can only share what is important to them. With the link sticker feature added recently, our community will have added features like:
An amazing stories creation experience in a streamlined way:
Stories stickers like Donation, Music, Poll, and now Link, will help creators to express themselves in better ways and share only what is important to them.
Addition of imaginative control:
The link sticker visuals and functions work in the same way as others like a question or poll- providing increased creator control. It can fluctuate to different styles, be reshaped, and be placed anywhere on your story for maximum impact.
Further engagement:
We also know that engagement and closeness are important strategies to engage with the audience through Instagram. In fact, they are what makes Insta a hit for small businesses and brands.
Individuals will receive quick reactions and replies on posts that have the link sticker attached to them, like just any other story that is shared, whereas you could not receive feedback with the “swipe-up” link.
Insta is also always finding if it’s possible to expand link access to more accounts in the future (they already announced that they started testing the link sticker back in June), and looking at things from integrity and safety concerns, on how this could impact the spread of incorrect information and spam, etc.
Conclusion
Hence, we definitely know that Insta has added advantages for the users using the app from the Sticker feature over the swipe-up feature. If it’s the right decision or not, that we will get to know only once users across the globe try out the feature in a full-fledged way.
Insta has noted down a lot of feedback from users on their swipe-up feature and has tried to implement the shortcomings using the sticker feature, which is great.
For sure users will find the stickers link much more effective and also it will help small businesses in bringing up more engagement to increase their followers. This feature will bring more engagement when followers will reply to stories having sticker links as well, just like any other plain story.
They are working thoroughly towards adding this feature to multiple accounts and broadening their reach. Hope it helps Instagram to maintain its growth on the correct path and more and more people acknowledge the newly added feature of Insta. Features only grow if people want to try out and people will try out only if they feel it is good and usage is easy.