Instagram Update: You Can Now Watch Stories From Your Home Feed

Instagram has received an update, which allows users to view stories from their home feed. A colored ring will appear around the profile pictures of people you follow, if they post a new story.

After the update, one tap on the profile photo will directly take you to the story. Once done watching, you will return to your previous location in the app. However, if you liked the old interface, do not be disheartened. You can still use and operate Instagram the old way by just tapping a person's username to visit their profile.

Read: WhatsApp Gets Instagram-Like Stories Feature In Latest Update

The new feature is expected to help make stories more appealing and make navigation between different Instagram pages easier. It is included in Instagram version 10.14 and is available only to Android users as of now.

The Stories feature was originally available on Snapchat, but then other social networks such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram came out with similar features. Just like Snapchat, photos and videos posted on Instagram disappear automatically after 24 hours. You can also choose to hide your Stories from anyone, even your followers and also see how many people viewed the videos and photos you posted in Stories.

You can also add stickers to your Stories displaying location names, time, weather and emojis. The app also has seasonal graphics such as Christmas trees and Hanukkah menorah. Apart from shooting Stories using the Instagram camera, you can also create one by using images and videos shot in the past 24 hours from your camera roll.

Previously, the app received an update in January, which lets users add background music to their Stories.

Read: How To Add Background Music To Instagram Stories

Instagram’s Stories feature is not ad-free though, it shows five-second photo and 15-second video ads. Although, you wouldn’t see these ads unless you scroll through the Stories of multiple people you follow.