Instagram testing open-ended questions in Stories to make content more interactive

The Face­book-owned app con­firmed it is test­ing a fea­ture that would let users include open-end­ed ques­tions with­in a Story.

Insta­gram is test­ing a fea­ture that allows users to add open-end­ed ques­tions with­in Sto­ries, mak­ing con­tent on the app more interactive.

Cur­rent­ly, the Face­book-owned app lets users post polls with mul­ti­ple-choice answers. Users also have the option to direct mes­sage some­one in response to a Sto­ry. By allow­ing open-end­ed ques­tions with­in a Sto­ry, Insta­gram is aim­ing to cre­ate more engage­ment between users and is open­ing the door for brands and influ­encers to enable more pub­lic con­ver­sa­tions with their followers.

An Insta­gram spokesper­son did con­firm the app is test­ing the fea­ture but could not give any fur­ther details. A user first tipped Android Police about the lat­est fea­ture last week, and TechCrunch reports users in Indone­sia and Spain have been able to add open-end­ed ques­tions to their Sto­ries.

Accord­ing to Insta­gram CEO Kevin Sys­trom, the app now has more than a bil­lion month­ly active users. The CEO shared the lat­est user num­bers dur­ing the launch event for IGTV — Instagram’s new video plat­form that lets any­one post videos up to an hour in length.

“On Insta­gram, peo­ple are watch­ing 60 per­cent more video than they did just last year,” said Sys­trom. “An entire­ly new cat­e­go­ry of video now exists, and it’s being made by cre­ators. Teens may be watch­ing less TV, but they’re watch­ing more cre­ators online … That makes Insta­gram one of the largest and most engaged audi­ences any­where in the world.”

Not only is Insta­gram build­ing out its plat­form to attract more video cre­ators, it has been adding a con­sis­tent stream of resources to its tool­box for brands and adver­tis­ers. Last month, the com­pa­ny rolled out a new shop­ping bag icon for brands to include with­in Sto­ries, adding an e‑commerce ele­ment to the con­tent. It also recent­ly gave busi­ness­es new mes­sag­ing options with­in their busi­ness pro­file inbox­es to stream­line inter­ac­tions with fol­low­ers and has expand­ed a book­ing and pay­ment fea­ture for a select group of businesses.

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