If you are like me, you’ve been eager to get your Instagram account verified or to grow it beyond 10K followers. Why? You wanted the option to have swipe up links on Stories.
Recently, that is no longer the problem. Instagram is officially rolling out the link sticker to all accounts worldwide including to users across the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region and Indian Subcontinent.
Swipe up to sticker tap
The sticker replaces the previous “swipe up” option on Stories, which has been retired since August. If you did use it, users couldn’t even reply to Stories that had swipe up links. The new link sticker solves that problem.
Using it is as easy as navigating to the sticker tool after snapping/selecting your photo/video, tapping the “Link” sticker and then entering the URL. Like other stickers, you can’t promote any Stories directly from the Instargam app if they use the new link sticker.
If you don’t see it yet under the Sticker options, give it a bit of time. Otherwise, you can check to see that you’re running the latest version of the app on iOS/Android (tends to work for me).
Many users have seen Instargam Stories being a major source of traffic. This rollout is welcome news not only for individual users/creators, but also for businesses who are still cultivating their audience.
Post photos/videos from desktop
If you’ve been finding it a hassle to just post from the mobile phone, Instagram has heard your cries. Users can now post their photos/videos straight from a desktop browser.
- You can post either a single photo/video.
- If you want to post a carousel of photos/videos or a mix of them, you haev the option for it.
- You can even adjust the scaling to either square, portrait/landscape, vertical, or keep the original aspect ratio.
However, customization edit options are limited compared to the native Instagram app (only the option to select the predefined filters and very few adjustment options). You can’t schedule your posts from the desktop browser (only from the Creator Studio).
Since they’ve recently consolidated videos under a dedicated tab (combining IGTV with the standard feed videos), you can still post videos that are more than 1min in length.
With these rollouts, if only they could expand availability of the Shopping tags to more countries in the region
Image credit: Instagram on Twitter
