Instagram is doubling down on Stories

Instagram is now doing even more to push its users to its new Stories feature.

The app is now surfacing Stories in its Explore section in an effort to encourage greater discovery.

Now, when you head to Instagram's Explore section, Stories will appear at the top of the page, much like they do in your normal feed. Like the rest of the Explore section, Stories are personalized based on what Instagram thinks you're interested in.

The company had previously confirmed that it would be bringing Stories to Explore, which has become one of the most-trafficked parts of the app. The section, which surfaces a curated selection of posts and custom video channels based on your past activity, now sees more than 100 million users a day, according to a statement from Instagram.

For users, the update also means that your Stories are now easier for others to find. If you have a publicly viewable account then your Stories can now appear in the Explore section of the app for potentially any user to see (Stories from private accounts will still only be viewable by followers.)

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

This will no doubt be somewhat controversial as Stories have been met with mixed reactions from users.

But by putting Stories at the very top of Explore, Instagram is signaling that it has no intention of backing away from the feature. Though widely seen as a blatant copy of Snapchat's feature of the same name, Instagram's Stories has been Facebook's best shot at attaining Snapchat-levels of daily engagement.