Instagram Candid Stories 

Candid Stories, one of Instagram’s newest features, among Instagram Notes, Group Profiles, Add Yours Nominations and Collaborative Collections, allows users to click and share a candid picture through Stories. 

If you’re familiar with BeReal, Candid Stories are similar to these. If you’re unfamiliar with BeReal, the concept is to share images, within a two-minute window, of what you’re doing at that moment. It was created to stray away from the fixations of editing and perfecting posts and to bring back the old days of social media, when you posted without care of how aesthetic your image was. 

Due to the popularity of BeReal, Instagram grabbed that idea and brought it to their own network. These Candid Stories are still being tested and haven’t been rolled out to all users yet. Instagram has been working on user connections and bringing people together through shared interests. 

How do Candid Stories work? 

Candid Stories are a way for you to capture what you’re doing in the moment and share with your friends on this network. 

Like BeReal, Instagram will send you a notification each day, at various times, a reminder to post to ‘Candid’. These will be viewable in Instagram Stories, however will only be visible to others who have already shared their candid story. 

Users can also choose to turn off the notifications inside Settings, if they don’t want to participate. 

How to upload a Candid Story 

There are a few ways to post to your Candid Story. First, if you have your daily notifications turned on, you can simply click into the notification, which will bring you to your camera on Instagram, and you can upload your story after it’s been captured. 

The second way to post is by going directly into your Instagram stories camera, where you can choose to post on Candid stories. 

The last way is via the multi-author story. On the Instagram Stories bar, there will be one dedicated to Candid Stories, which will pop up next to your profile picture. It will be a pink icon with a white smiley face. You can simply click into this and add your own.

Using Candid Stories 

One of the most important things to note about Candid Stories is that when capturing a picture, it will take a picture using your front camera and back camera, simultaneously. 

After capturing your image, you can move your front camera picture anywhere on the page, and then edit it just like a regular story. The only feature not available for editing is adding filters. 

Once you have uploaded your candid story to the feed, you will then be able to see others’ stories, as well as your own. 

You will be able to interact with these in the same way as regular stories, including DM’s and reactions.

What does this mean for creators? 

Although this feature is still in its first works, the commentary and discussions have already launched. Since we understand the concept and surge, thanks to BeReal, we can predict how this will play out on Instagram. 

Even though there are mixed feelings, I think it’s clear that this is just another option when it comes to connecting with your community. And whereas it may take away from your curated posts, it could be an opportunity for your business or brand to be more transparent, authentic and contemporary. 

However, this doesn’t mean that everyone needs to jump on the bandwagon. Once this feature rolls out to the public, see how your followers interact with it and what they are saying about candid stories. 

With constant changes and new roll-outs appearing on Instagram, it can be challenging to keep up. The most important thing is to be in the know, and from there decide if it’s right for your brand. 

What do you think about Candid stories? Let us know in the comments below. 

Anniston Ward , 17 January 2023