Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, revealed on 5 October that the social media platform has started testing a new way to share Stories with followers.
Group lists would work similarly to the apps Close Friends list, which was first introduced to users in 2018, by allowing you to share stories with a select group of followers. The major difference is that these group lists would allow creators to manage multiple audience lists under specific categories. In a message on the Broadcast channel IG Updates Mosseri said, “This [feature] allows you to share stories to smaller groups and gives you more control over who can see your stories.”
Screenshot examples shared to the channel, demonstrate that users would be able to create separate groups for family members, or the foodie friends in their life, for example. And while no timeline was reveled for when users can expect to see this feature in their app, Mosseri seemed very keen, adding “As someone who uses Close Friends often, I’m pretty excited about being able to create additional lists for the people in my life.”
This feature would be the latest in a series of updates on the Meta app. It follows closely behind the aforementioned Broadcast Channels, which according to Instagram, “[gives] millions of creators a new way to directly engage with followers at scale in real time.” In September 2023, it was also reported that Instagram is rolling out an option to share feed posts with Close Friends only.