Instagram is rolling out a new Stories view on the Mac

Layout from Instagram on iPhone 11 Pro
Layout from Instagram on iPhone 11 Pro (Image credit: Christine Romero-Chan / iMore)

Instagram Stories On Desktop

Instagram Stories On Desktop (Image credit: Instagram)

What you need to know

  • Instagram has launched a new interface for viewing Stories on computers.

Instagram is in the process of rolling out a new way to watch Stories on desktop computers, including the Mac. The new view offers up a carousel of videos on a black background, making stories look pretty great away from your iPhone for the first time.

The new Instagram Stories interface doesn't appear to be available to everyone just yet, but I've been able to test it myself and it is indeed pretty sweet. Users can reply to Instagram Stories right from the carousel and switching from one story to another is a simple case of clicking from one to another.

So far Instagram on the desktop has often felt like a second class citizen beside the iPhone and Android apps, but this is the latest move that sees the social network attempting to rectify that stance. As noted by 9to5Mac, this latest improvement follows the addition of new playback controls including the option to pause Stories once they've started.

Are you seeing this latest Instagram improvement on your Mac? Shout up in the comments and let me know how you feel about it!

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.