The Stories section is a prominent feature in all of Meta's apps, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. In terms of design, Story thumbnails and icons appear differently in each app. However, this seems to be changing as Instagram Stories is getting a design update to look more like Facebook Stories.
Instagram System Design | Meta | Facebook
The new layout change was spotted in the latest beta version of Instagram version 325.0.0.27.91 on Android by our editor, Anmol Sachdeva. This looks like a server side change. We tested the same version on other devices but they are yet to receive this design update.
As you can see from the screenshot above, the Stories section of Instagram previously displayed circular icons with a yellow-pink outline and the user's profile picture inside. This design has been updated to use larger rectangular thumbnails that provide a sneak peek of the story content with the profile picture placed in the center.
The update makes Instagram Stories look strikingly similar to Facebook Stories, both featuring rectangular thumbnails with story previews. This change also increases the space that Stories take up on the app's home feed, potentially reducing the amount of content visible at a time.
