Stories
Share a photo or short video as a story with text, a link and a poll, see who viewed and liked it, and decide whether people can reply.
A story is a photo or video that sits above the feed for 24 hours and then disappears. Members use stories for quick, informal updates that don't need to stay in the feed.
The stories bar is at the top of the feed. Your story is always first, followed by everyone else's — unseen stories first, with a colored ring.
Creating a story
- In the stories bar, select the + on Your story. New story opens.
- Choose where the picture comes from:
- Upload — a photo (up to 20 MB) or a video (up to 500 MB) from your device.
- Camera — take a photo or record a video with your camera. Pick the camera, microphone and shape (9:16, 16:9 or 4:3) first. A recording stops by itself after 60 seconds.
- Add what you need on top of it (below), and a caption in Write a caption… use @ to mention.
- Under Who can reply, choose Everyone or Off.
- Select Share. You see "Story posted".
To start again with a different photo or video, use the back or retake button in the corner.
Adding text, a link or a poll
The buttons beside the story add items you can drag anywhere on it:
| Item | What you can set |
|---|---|
| Text | Type your text, change its color, turn the background (BG) on, make it bold, italic or underlined, and resize it with A+ / A− or the corner handle. |
| Link | A button — Learn more by default — that opens your URL when a viewer taps it. Enter the address in the link field (https://…). |
| Poll | A question (Ask a question…, up to 80 characters) with 2 to 4 options of up to 40 characters each. Add option adds one. A story can have one poll. |
Select an item to edit it again, or use its delete button to remove it.
Mentioning someone
Type @ in the caption and pick a member from the list. They get a notification that you mentioned
them in a story.
Viewing stories
- Select someone's picture in the stories bar. Their stories play one after another.
- Tap or use the arrows to move between stories, and close the viewer when you're done.
A photo stays on screen for 20 seconds; a video plays to the end.
While watching someone else's story you can:
- Like it with the heart.
- Reply, if the author allowed it: type in Comment… and send. Your reply arrives in the author's Messages as a reply to their story.
- Vote in its poll. You see the results once you've voted, and you can't change your vote.
Seeing who viewed your story
- Open your own story from Your story.
- Select Activity. You see the number of Viewers, the number of likes, and the list of people who viewed it — those who liked it are marked with a heart.
Only you see this list. On a story with a poll, you also see the results and the number of votes.
Deleting a story
- Open your story from Your story.
- Select the delete icon at the bottom. The story is removed straight away, together with its views and likes.
Caution
There's no confirmation and no undo.
Who gets notified
- Followers get a push notification when someone they follow posts a story.
- An admin's story in the main feed notifies every member. In a channel, it goes to the author's followers like anyone else's.
- Mentioned members are notified.
Hiding the stories bar
You can switch stories off where you don't want them: Hide stories in General Settings removes the bar from the main feed, and each channel has its own Hide Stories switch — see Channels.
Things worth knowing
- Stories last 24 hours. After that they're gone from the bar; there's no archive.
- Only the author can delete a story. Admins can't remove someone else's story, and stories can't be reported. If stories are being misused, hide the stories bar where it happens.
- Channel stories stay in the channel. A story posted in a channel shows only in that channel's stories bar, to its members.
- The stories bar shows to signed-in members only. Visitors don't see it.