Thread by @oparenko

✨✨✨ Stories and Explosion of Mobile Micro-Formats ✨✨✨

I've been truly fascinated by all the recent developments that are happening around stories. I tried to structure some of my observations and articulate my thoughts in the thread below.

1/16 Core mechanics of any newsfeed-based product have been relatively same for a very long time.

2/16 Somewhere in the process newsfeeds became more or less algorithmic, but the mechanics remained the same: like, share, comment.

3/16 In 2016 Facebook introduced reactions. Like became non-binary. You suddenly could not just like or do not like, but also love, haha, yay, wow, sad, angry a post.

4/16 Around that time Facebook has also started productising some of the recurring patters in posts. E.g. if you are asking for recommendations your post appearance would adjust accordingly.

5/16 Seemingly boring Facebook posts became a bit more enhanced, but the core interaction mechanics didn't change. Like, share, comment.

6/16 At the time when Instagram and Facebook copied stories from Snapchat it didn't seem like too big of a deal. Facebook has done this before. Now stories and newsfeed live side by side. Cool, whatevs.

7/16 But then stories kind of exploded. Gradually everyone started using them. New story micro-formats are appearing constantly. Just look at these recent updates of Facebook Camera (image courtesy of @wongmjane).

8/16 Why is this happening? Why is it exciting? What's coming next?

9/16 ✨ Stories are mobile-only ✨

Snapchat has never had a desktop app. Stories were actually never intended to be consumed or created on desktop.

10/16 ✨ Camera is the new keyboard ✨

Newsfeed was designed at the time when desktop was much bigger than mobile, so keyboard and mouse were key inputs. Camera is a key-input for mobile-only stories world.

11/16 ✨ Stories totally change the mechanics of interaction ✨

There are no likes or comments visible to everyone on stories. Stories are inherently more personal, because they only facilitate direct communication between creator and audience.

12/16 ✨ Stories are immersive ✨

When you look at at the newsfeed item there are lots of things that are competing for your attention. When you look at a story, there's almost nothing else on your screen. You're totally immersed in the experience.

13/16 ✨ Stories work well in AR/VR ✨

Immersive nature of stories makes them perfect for consumption in VR/AR. Snap Spectacles is definitely a move in that direction and there's more to come.

14/16 ✨ We shape our tools and then our tools shape us ✨

Big man Marshall McLuhan couldn't be more right when he said this. @nypl has recently started publishing entire novels as Instagram stories.

15/16 ✨ TL;DR ✨

Stories are the perfect medium for generation of dopamine-hungry people with short attention span. And it's cray and exciting.

16/16 P.S. I've probably massively oversimplified some of the developments and their chronology. Soz, feel free to correct me.