Instagram is introducing a new ‘Add Yours’ sticker in Stories that will allow users to join in public threads on the network.
We can see one account utilising Add Yours to highlight their ‘Outfit of the Day’ in Instagram’s post introducing the new function. You may see who has answered the Add Yours prompt by tapping the sticker, and the responses to the Story are public.
By clicking the ‘Add Yours’ button and responding with your own tale, you may join the chain.
“With unique prompts and public replies,” Instagram wrote in a tweet, “you can share the sticker and watch who responds to it in their own Stories.”
Record a Story and then pick the sticker symbol from the top navigation bar to access the new function. The new Write Yours sticker will appear, allowing you to add a caption and encourage others to join a discussion.
Keep in mind that this functionality is still being rolled out, so it may not be on your app just yet.
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Why Instagram wants you to join the conversation
Instagram’s new sticker looks to be a method for users to communicate more by building a visual thread on a topic – and by making the comments public, it’s also a way for users to find new accounts to follow.
With competitors like TikTok and Snapchat gaining ground on Instagram (and, according to one US research, proving to be more popular among adolescents), it’s understandable that Instagram is exploring for new methods to re-engage a younger audience.
According to documents acquired by The New York Times, the photo-sharing app sees the loss of underage users as a negative for its business: One marketing document stated, “If we lose the teen footing in the US, we lose the pipeline.”
With Instagram apparently allocating the majority of its annual marketing money to young audiences, the Add Yours function looks to be a new component of that approach.
Instagram Launches ‘Add Yours’ Sticker to Facilitate More Engagement in Stories
It makes sense — TikTok has a lot of users, and Instagram wants to tap into that everywhere it can to keep them from leaving, so if it can use comparable capabilities, it should at least try it out and see what happens. However, it’s clear that this is a copy.
Who cares if it works if it does? However, Instagram, as well as Facebook (or Meta) in general, isn’t particularly adept at coming up with new, creative ideas in this regard.
This will be a major roadblock in Facebook’s current attempt to reclaim younger people, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently stating that the company will prioritise serving young adults in its products above optimising for older users. Facebook recognises the importance of maintaining engagement with younger user groups in order to maximise take-up of its advanced, metaverse-aligned offerings, but the data shows that it is losing ground in this regard, with Facebook usage among people under the age of 24 declining over the last decade.
In this regard, a fundamental issue is that Facebook just lacks cultural intelligence and a knowledge of what appeals to younger audiences – which is why Snapchat is consistently able to start and lead new trends, and now TikTok has become the primary vehicle for doing so. Instagram used to have that cultural presence, that direct access to create online groups, but it’s lost contact with them since Facebook took control. While the graph above does not relate to Instagram usage, you can guarantee that the same patterns are occurring there as well, thus Zuck’s heightened focus on younger demographics.
Because of the replication, this is significant. Yes, Facebook has had varied degrees of success in copying features from Snapchat and TikTok, with Instagram Stories being the most notable victory, while Reels has also been a smash for Instagram, even though use still lags below TikTok. But it’s not helping Facebook win the larger cultural change; because of the continual duplication, Facebook is no longer perceived as an innovator, and it’s lost its cool factor in this regard.
Or perhaps not because of this, but because it’s part of a larger trend: Facebook has been really excellent at delivering these services to less tech-savvy individuals who aren’t using these other, newer applications.