Instagram Adds 'Watch Next' Frame to Highlight Unviewed Stories

Lindsey Gamble / Instagram

Instagram has added a Watch Next frame to its Stories feature. This new frame may appear while users are watching Stories from accounts they follow. It compiles recent Stories from people they follow but haven’t viewed yet.

Users can watch these Stories by tapping the thumbnail of the account whose Stories they want to view.

Why It Matters: The Watch Next feature helps users discover and view Stories that are live but haven’t been watched yet. By highlighting unviewed Stories in a dedicated frame, Instagram makes it easier for users to tap and view content they might have missed, which benefits creators and brands, who consistently post Stories content.

This update is part of Instagram's ongoing efforts to improve user engagement with Stories. Over the past year, Instagram has launched and tested several new features around Stories, especially Highlights including displaying recent Highlights between Feed posts and testing a dedicated Highlights tab on the grid.