Quick Summary
Instagram is adding public comments to its Instagram Stories. Until now you could only interact via DM, but this new feature makes Stories more sociable.
A new free upgrade to Instagram is rolling out to fix one of its weirdest quirks. Until now, if you wanted to comment on someone's Instagram story you could only do it by sending them a direct message. Now, though, posters can allow people to comment directly on their stories instead of sliding into their DMs.
This is the second important update to Stories in the last month. Last week we reported on the Instagram app update that delivered additional personalisation tools including new sticker and text options and larger photo and video carousels. But where those updates were focused on making your posts more attractive, this update is about making them more sociable.
Why comments are a useful Instagram upgrade
The lack of commenting on Instagram Stories always struck me as odd, because comments drive conversation and conversation drives engagement – and engagement is the Holy Grail of all social networks because it means people spend more time on the service. It was an odd omission because of course normal posts can have comments, but Stories couldn't.
For me, it also made me less likely to interact with friends' Stories. There's something more invasive about a direct message than a comment because of course it goes to someone's inbox rather than sitting on their post; that made me wary of interrupting someone just so they could see I'd posted LOL or a heart emoji.
The option to direct message will remain provided the poster has enabled direct messaging, and even where comments are enabled you'll still be able to DM instead of posting publicly if that's what you prefer. But I think for most of us, commenting rather than DMing will soon become the norm.
There is one downside to this. Public commenting also tends to attract more trolls, because being awful in public is part of the thrill. Instagram's blocking tools are pretty good but I know from personal experience that they're often loath to take any action against some pretty awful posts. If posters are going to be confident allowing public commenting, they'll need to be confident in Instagram's moderation too.
The new features are rolling out now to the Instagram app and to the web imminently.
