Instagram is Testing a New ‘Re-Share’ Sticker for Stories to Encourage More Thoughtful Feed Post Sharing

This will no doubt ruffle some feathers within the Instagram community.

Today, Instagram is launching a new test of a ‘Re-Share’ sticker for Instagram Stories, which will enable people to re-share feed posts that they’ve recently viewed in the app via a new, dedicated sharing format, as opposed to simply re-pasting the entire feed post into a Stories frame.

As you can see here, the new process will show you a listing of posts that you’ve recently viewed or saved in the app, including both feed posts and Reels content. You will then be able to choose which post you want to share to your Story, which will then see that post appear in a dedicated, smaller sticker, which you can append to your larger Story image or video.

The idea is that this will encourage users to be more creative in their re-shares, as opposed to straight re-sharing of feed posts into their Stories – something that Instagram has been working to limit, or even eradicate, for the last few months.

As explained by Instagram VP of Product Vishal Shah:

“People tell us that they prefer original Stories content over reshared posts, so we’re testing a new way to reshare w/ stickers. Our hope is that people will be more intentional when they share, which will create a better Stories experience for everyone.”

But is that true? Do people really dislike seeing re-shared feed posts that much that they want the option updated or removed? We have take Instagram at its word here – but every time that it’s experimented with this element, there has been at least some level of user backlash.

Instagram first started messing around with its feed post re-sharing options back in January, when some users reported seeing this notification in the app:

That’s right – for some users, Instagram removed the option to re-share feed posts to Stories entirely, as it moved to combat what it had identified as a rising problem, based on user feedback.

As explained by Instagram at the time:

“We’ve seen from research that people prefer to see original photos and videos in Stories from the people they care about. The goal of our test is to better understand how people feel about this type of content and ultimately improve the Stories experience.”

So people, according to IG, really don’t like seeing feed posts in Stories. This makes sense. If you’re following a profile, and seeing their regular posts in your main feed, it’s probably not the best experience to see the exact same content then repeated again in their Stories.

Yet, even so, many Instagram users voiced their opposition to the test, especially businesses that have been using Stories re-sharing to amplify posts about their brand and products.

Instagram appears to have heard those concerns and has since been working on variations of this new ‘Re-Share’ sticker along with other labeling options for re-shared feed posts in Stories.

And now, it seems, this new variation is what it’s decided to go with. This will no doubt be an annoyance for some users, but it seems like a compromise that will enable re-sharing while also maintaining the originality of Stories content, to some degree.

In any event, it’s only a limited test for now, with Instagram noting that only a small subset of users will see the new option in their Stories sticker tray.

But it does look like a way to build in more creativity around sharing, while also facilitating re-shares of relevant content.

It actually could be a better way to go. We’ll keep you updated on any progress.