Instagram has decided to add more flair to stories by changing the ‘Close Friends’ designation to ‘Selected People’. While this may seem like a minor update, it allows for a more streamlined stories audience and provides an additional element to your stories creation flow.
Presently, the feature is still being tested in Brazil, with no clear date as to when a full global release is scheduled. Besides providing additional categorization options, ticking on ‘Selected People’ allows you to view their specific stories’ updates.
This is essentially another variation of their ‘Close Friends’ functionality that allows users to list their key contacts for more synchronized stories sharing. Think of it as being similar to a bank’s “Preferred” customer contact list. How ‘Selected People’ mainly differs from ‘Close Friends’ lies in its ability to grant you more in-depth control with regards to defining your specific audience. It’s a perfect secondary filter for purposely directing relevant viewership for niche influencers or brands.
9-to-5 Mac quotes Instagram:
“Before, with the ‘Close Friends’ feature, people could only share Stories with the same list of friends without being able to edit it. With this test, you’ll be able to add, remove, or keep people on your list with different Stories.”
Perhaps another thing to take note of is that ‘Selected People’ will also save your listing preferences until such a time that you need to make edits again, allowing for easier changes, should you need to or want, each time you post.
The Take
It’s not an awful lot to take in, but hey, a new feature is a new feature, and if Instagram is deciding to take baby steps, then we say let them. Amidst all platforms currently trying to dish out the biggest and baddest updates, simple additions like ‘Selected People’ offers potentially make the biggest impacts. Importance lies in smaller details, or so the saying goes.
“Instagram Stories has become the place to express yourself and share your daily moments. And, sometimes, people don’t want to share the same content with everybody. The ability to select different groups of people to share Stories was already something our community was asking for a while.”
Perhaps the most that we can appreciate from Selected People’s added functionality is the air of closeness and intimate social exclusivity that it can offer. If certain users or even brands wish to just share stories with, as the name suggests, selected people, then this listing option lets them do just that. Again, the primary benefit offered here is the ability to improve engagement by strictly gating relevant viewership.
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