Instagram Launches ‘Stay Home’ Sticker for Story to Encourage Social Distancing Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

I’m not sure how effective ‘Stay home’ stickers that Instagram launched are, but it certainly seems keen on releasing them, which would likely suggest that they’re at least somewhat effective.

This week, Instagram has launched a new ‘Stay Home’ sticker for Instagram Stories in order to encourage people to stay inside amid the evolving COVID-19 outbreak.

As per Instagram:

“Today we’re launching a new “Stay Home” sticker that you can find in Stories. If you use the sticker, your photo or video will be added to a shared Instagram story where people can see how you’re staying home and staying safe.”

So, more than just the sticker itself, as you can see in the far right image above, Instagram is also launching a new group Story which gathers together Stories frames in which users have applied the Stay Home sticker.

Instagram stories rolled out a “Stay at Home” sticker.

All stories of people you follow that include that sticker in their story are now curated into a “Stay at Home” story in your stories feed.#StayAtHome

This is a key message, which, evidently, is not being taken seriously by some, with people in western regions in particular seemingly not heeding the many official warnings. The COVID-19 death toll continues to ramp up day-by-day, and yet many people are still going out and gathering together, living their lives as normally would.

Even if you’re not showing symptoms of the coronavirus, you can still be carrying it, and even if you’re in lower risk age brackets, our healthcare systems are being overwhelmed by those who are susceptible, which means less protection for everyone, and all conditions, as it reduces the capacity for medical clinics and hospitals to provide required care across the board.

All the discussion around ‘flattening the curve‘ doesn’t appear to have caught on, and as such, it’s good to see Instagram at least trying to underline this key message, and encourage participation – which, hopefully, will get more people to stay home and limit the spread of the virus.

As noted, Instagram has rolled out several of these cause-related stickers in recent times.

Back in October, when it launched its ‘Restrict’ mode, Instagram also added a ‘Create Don’t Hate’ sticker to discourage cyberbullying, while it also launched a sticker to thank healthcare workers amid the COVID-19 outbreak just last week.

It seems like a relatively minor addition but seeing others show their support for such causes, it could help to encourage further engagement – and ideally, in this case, personal action as well.

The new ‘Stay Home’ sticker is available on Instagram from today.