Instagram adds mid-feed preview tiles for Stories, tests new stop-motion camera feature

Getting tired of the same old Instagram Stories? Get ready for stop motion, the newest feature in Instagram's story camera.

The tool allows you to take a series of photos, string them together into a short stop-motion video and post them to your story.  You can edit the videos with filters, stickers, and texts, just like any other post to Stories. The Stop Motion feature is available inside the Story camera alongside other options like Boomerang and the recently released Superzoom tool. Stop Motion is not available for all users at the current time, but Instagram has confirmed it's in testing.

Over a year ago, Instagram rolled out its clone of Snapchat’s popular Stories feature and has since said that its version of Stories reaches over 250 million daily users. Now, Instagram is making a change to its iOS app that makes Stories even more prominent.

While before, Stories were limited to a bar along the top of the app, Instagram is now placing much larger “preview tiles” of Stories in a user’s main feed. You’ll see the new tiles while scrolling throughout the feed, under a “Recent Stories” heading. You’ll see three rather large tiles next one another, with each one offering a quick preview of another user’s story and the option to tap to view the whole story.