Instagram has been pushing out updates to its app right and left. The desktop app recently received support for a carousel view of Stories. Now, it looks like the company is working on overhauling the design of its Stories on the mobile app. Instagram has confirmed that it is working on Vertical Stories, which will give it a more TikTok-like feel. As of now, users browse Stories through horizontal swipes and taps. The navigation was picked up from Snapchat. Now, the social media app is inclining towards the look and feel of TikTok.

Vertical swiping is how you interact with the web and browse websites and most of the social media apps including Facebook, YouTube and Instagram’s own feeds. It is likely a more natural form of navigation than taps and horizontal swipes. TechCrunch reports Instagram confirmed the development of the feature. Further, the company would likely prioritize video posts over images to better compete with TikTok in the “Vertical Stories” feed. The new feature was also spotted by the developer Alessandro Paluzzi.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/Instagram?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

As you can see from his screenshot, the text reads: Now you can swipe up and down to browse stories and then a big, blue button labeled “Vertical Stories. That said, the feature is not yet live, and he dug up the feature in Instagram’s code. “This is an early prototype and is not currently testing on Instagram,” a company spokesperson told TechCrunch. The feature isn’t out for public yet.

It must be noted that the presence of Instagram Vertical Stories is a prototype and it doesn’t mean the product will launch in public. However, it does reveal where Instagram is going with its approach. The vertical feed is already enabled in Instagram’s Reels. When you click on the Reels video here, you’re taken to a new vertical user interface.