Instagram says it's testing a feature that lets users add others' public posts to their Stories, easing up on its philosophy of only promoting original content
But Only Within Its ‘Stories’ Section Juli Clover / MacRumors : Instagram Testing Feature That Lets You Share Other People's Posts in Stories Dani Deahl / The Verge : Instagram is testing a feature that lets users ‘Regram’ posts to Stories Mallory Locklear / Engadget : Instagram test lets some share other users' posts in Stories Tweets: Marshall Kirkpatrick / @marshallk : Instagram is experimenting with content curation, allowing you to share other people's posts in Stories. Opt-out built in if you don't want to be curated. That's great! http://techcrunch.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This 2018 test is the first visible crack in Instagram's original-content-only doctrine: rather than pushing users off-platform to screenshot, it lets them add others' public posts to Stories directly, with an opt-out for people who don't want to be curated. The idea didn't die here — months later Instagram was spotted testing resharing to the main feed, then publicly denied it was building such a feature at all, a test-deny-relaunch pattern that would repeat.
The throughline runs forward: Stories gained shareable link stickers in a 2021 test, and by 2025 Instagram shipped a full repost feature for public Reels and grid posts with a dedicated tab — meaning this early Stories experiment was the opening move in a decade-long retreat from 'original content only.'
First-order effects
- Users whose accounts are public immediately lose default control over where their posts appear — anyone can fold their work into a Story unless they find and use the opt-out.
Second-order effects
- Curation becomes a distribution lever: accounts with large followings can amplify others' posts inside Stories, shifting reach from creators to whoever reshares them — the same dynamic that eventually justified the dedicated repost tab in the 2025 rollout.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — test quietly, deny under pressure, ship broadly — Instagram's identity inverts from a gallery of original posts into a resharing network where ranking systems, not creation norms, govern what spreads.
The trend: Instagram has spent years dismantling its original-content-only positioning, moving from Stories-only regram tests toward a platform-wide repost layer governed by algorithmic ranking and user controls.