According to a Brazilian user, it seems that Instagram is testing a system to limit the number of Stories that a user can view together: this is how the novelty works, and what it could be used for.
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It was as far back as 2016 as Instagram, taking as an example what was then its main rival, Snapchat, launched the function of the Stories, photos and videos lasting 24 hours which, in the intentions of Menlo Park, relieving people of excessive responsibility, it should have favored a greater sharing of contents, which then actually occurred, perhaps with some excess.
To account for this aspect was a Tecnoblog editor, the Brazilian Phil Ricelle who, evidently involved in a test, noted how Instagram is implementing a limit to the display of Stories shared by other users. To date, as revealed some time ago by the platform itself, a maximum of 100 Stories can be shared per day: going further, even if the 24 hours have not expired, the oldest ones are automatically deleted.
This limit discovered in 2017 by the editor of Mashable Raymond Wong (“How I broke Instagram Stories”), with the test in progress, remains, but the amount of Stories that can be viewed on the same screen changes: the screenshots shared on the net, in fact, they agree that it will be possible to see only 3 at a time for each author, of a total indicated and larger, and that – if you want to look at all the others – you will need to tap the “Show all” option.
Otherwise, if the user does not proceed in this sense, Instagram will automatically switch to view the Stories of another user. For now, the test still seems not very widespread, and it is not clear if it will ever be extended to everyone but, if this were to happen, it would change the general approach to the Stories.
Users who are now used to tapping the screen once to automatically watch all the Stories of a given creator should manually demonstrate their interest in doing so (providing a useful indicator of interest) since, if not, would benefit from viewing content from multiple creators. On the other hand, content sharers should take into account, in deciding what to publish, that from the fourth story onwards they are destined to have fewer views.