LinkedIn is testing a Stories feature called 'Student Voices' along with GIF comments

tech2 News StaffNov 21, 2018 10:14:19 IST

Soon it will be hard to tell where this all started because from what it looks like, every social media platform is turning into each other’s clone.

After a long list of Facebook-owned apps adopted Snapchat’s Stories feature, LinkedIn too is now ready to join the race. Called ‘Student Voices’, LinkedIn has reportedly confirmed the addition of this feature on the platform, which is clearly its way to re-engage with the younger audience.

LinkedIn Stories feature called Student Voices.

“Campus playlists are a new video feature that we’re currently rolling out to college students in the US. As we know, students love to use video to capture moments so we’ve created this new product to help them connect with one another around shared experiences on campus to help create a sense of community”, LinkedIn product manager Isha Patel told TechCrunch.

For now, the Stories feature is only available to university students in the US, but LinkedIn has plans to extend the feature to more of its users in the near future.

This feature was first spotted by Jane Manchun Wong. Besides Stories, she said, LinkedIn is also redesigning its UI for Page, which it recently introduced.

LinkedIn is testing redesigned UI for Pages

similarly: https://t.co/HIP2Tz9551 pic.twitter.com/IJFZyRogl3

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) November 20, 2018

Similar to Facebook, LinkedIn is also working on allowing users to share their location in messages.

LinkedIn is testing Location Sharing in Messaging pic.twitter.com/ACxjElqWvM

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) November 20, 2018

The post composition for LinkedIn is also being redesigned, but it has a more Twitter-like effect.

LinkedIn is testing redesigned post composition UI pic.twitter.com/Yy6sDzJTNY

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) November 20, 2018

Wong also said, that in her backend testing, she found that LinkedIn will soon also rollout GIF comments feature, and Facebook-like Reactions such as clapping, angry, laughing, sad.

LinkedIn is testing GIF comments! pic.twitter.com/5hqp3pC75A

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) November 20, 2018

LinkedIn is testing Reactions, similar to Facebook's counterpart

Reactions include "Like", "Clap", "Insightful", "Hmm", "Support"

Tip @Techmeme pic.twitter.com/CUqL3zcLlj

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) November 20, 2018

As LinkedIn plans, all other rumoured features may attract some young audience. It is a bit strange if one comes to think of it because Stories feature was originally invented for broadcasting off-the-cuff moments that disappear after a set time, so you do not have to care about its impact on your reputation.

But with the feature now being rolled out on a professional networking platform, will we see new use cases of Stories?