About time: Instagram now lets everyone share links in Stories

Instagram has announced that it's expanding the link-sharing feature in Stories to all its users. The company started testing this feature in June and replaced the swipe-up links with it in late August. Since the latter was only available to accounts that are verified or have more than 10,000 followers, Link stickers will enable more users to share external URLs through Stories irrespective of their accounts' verified status and follower count.

Additionally, Link stickers will allow Story viewers to reply to it and engage with the account, unlike the swipe-up link Stories, which didn't allow any interaction.

So, how to add a link to your Instagram Stories with the Link sticker?

• Capture or upload content to your Story as you usually do.
• Select the sticker tool from the top navigation bar.
• Tap the "Link" sticker to add your desired URL and tap "Done."
• Now place the Link sticker in your story just like other stickers, and tap on it to see the color options.
• Once you are done with the sticker's positioning and colors, post it.

Instagram says it is working on more ways to allow sticker customizations. Also, note that unlike the swipe-up link feature, where you swiped up on the Story to open the webpage, you'll have to tap on the Link sticker to visit the URL.

The social media company also said that "new accounts and accounts that repeatedly share things like hate speech and misinformation, or other content that violates our Community Guidelines will not have access to the Link sticker."

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