Instagram is saying goodbye to its swipe-up link feature.
Let’s review what swipe-up means and why it is important. Swipe-up links have been used on Instagram Stories since around the time that Stories were first introduced in August 2016. Early on, they were restricted to high-volume accounts (think: Nike, McDonald’s, etc.) As time went on, this link feature became more accessible to more users, and now users that are verified or have over 10,000 followers can use this feature.
Until now. In August 2021, Instagram announced that they would be retiring the swipe-up function for stickers on Instagram Stories. Stickers are add-ons that Instagram users can put on their stories to drive engagement, from polls to questions, donations to tagged locations, and users. It’s a natural progression for the user experience to also tap on stickers to access links.
In addition to polls, questions, and location stickers, the Link Sticker allows creators to resize it for maximum engagement. Viewers are now able to react or reply with a comment just like any Story post on Instagram. Before that wasn’t possible when people clicked through the swipe-up link in posts before but this new feature is available specifically for those who use link stickers as well as all other types of Stories!
What Stickers Mean For Business
If you’ve had access to the swipe-up function in the past, you should have access to it now. It has been speculated that Instagram will open up link-sharing access to more brands with smaller followings to begin adding links in an effort to drive more businesses to use the platform more regularly. This will likely be rolled out to pages with an existing engaged following, so don’t wait too long to gear up your Instagram page for the rollout!
This change does have some implications for brands today. Here’s what you can do to get prepared:
- Swap out any story language that tells users to “swipe-up” with a different call-to-action: Click here, shop here, etc.
- Go through old highlights to check on your link functionality. If any are not working, work on replacing them with new stories that include stickers.
- Create new templates that cater to the stickers “click here” rather than any “swipe up” templates.
That’s all you need to know about the sunsetting swipe-ups! Pour one out for all our favorite swipe-up GIFs that we’ve used over the years, and make way for the next generation of user experience on Instagram Stories.
Want to read more? Check out this article from TechCrunch to learn more.
