Instagram Stories vs Medium Series
Let’s get ready to rumble!
Today, we will be looking at two digital platforms and how they compare with similar features. Meet our contenders for this match. Both out of Silicon Valley, we have a true David vs Goliath fight in front of us.
In the first corner— based out of South Park, San Francisco, weighing in at 700 million monthly users, we have Instagram Stories. In the other corner — from the Financial District of downtown San Francisco, weighing in at 60 million monthly users, let’s give it up for Medium Series!
Don’t let size fool you, we have an interesting fight ahead of us. What Medium lacks in audience stature it makes up for in content depth. Let’s take a closer look at these comparable features.
Instagram Stories
I really don’t use Instagram all that much so I approached this comparison as a novice. I have only made a few posts to Instagram in my life and I don’t regularly view it. Without asking my wife I wasn’t even sure how to even create a story. I’m not someone that uses social media a ton so it probably would have been more obvious for people that do.
I tested Instagram stories through a Samsung Galaxy S4. You are only able to publish content on Instagram from a mobile device. The desktop version only allows viewing of content. Instagram isn’t even designed for tablets. On an iPad you can only view Instagram the size of a phone screen but it functions the same as on phone.
Once I figured out how to add images to my story, it was an easy process. First you either take a picture or video or add one from your gallery. For my test story, I added photos and videos that were already on my phone. Once you have added a photo, you have several options to customize the appearance.
As a side note, on my phone the task bar obscures the top of the screen when taking screenshots, so the top of the design of Instagram will be blocked as a result in pictures.
The icons along the top from left to right allow you to go back, add a sticker, draw on the picture, or add text. You can search from hundreds of stickers, draw in multiple colors and brush thicknesses, and customize your text options. In this way images or videos in your story are highly customizable. Along the bottom, the icons allow you to save an image or video to your device, add to your story or send it to someone else.
I chose to just add text to my images and videos. The text options were highly modifiable. You could adjust size, choose from five fonts, select text justification, use all-caps or not, freely place text around the image, pick from a couple dozen colors, or use the eyedropper tool to use any color from your image. Instagram treats content creation like a canvas, where every user can be there own artist telling their story.
Viewing your story or someone else’s story is simple. You just tap on the profile picture of the person’s story you want to view. Each picture plays for a view seconds and the videos play for their duration in a quick sequence. In this image I tested how Instagram handled a landscape image. It seems to have filled in a background color based on the colors in the picture.
The main idea behind Instagram Stories is that they are snapshots into your friend’s day. Users are meant to upload pictures and videos to tell a story of what they are doing that day. While you are able to go back and view your own story at any time in an archive, you can only view the previous 24 hours of your friend’s stories. Medium Series takes a different approach to telling stories.
Medium Series
I tried to create a Medium Series from my phone but my device is too old to support it. I also tried to create a Medium Series from my iPad but Medium hasn’t released that functionality yet. The only place I was able to create and test a Medium Series was from within my browser.
Creating a Series is easy. You simply click on your profile picture and then select Series from the dropdown menu. This is the same way you would create a new Story on Medium so it is easily findable. While it is easy to create a Series, it is really hard to find a Series by another author. There is no section on Medium’s homepage that shows new Series.
My thoughts are that Series are primarily intended for mobile viewing for now. When I try to view a Series on iPad I get a notification that says, “Sorry. Series are not currently available on iPad. To read this series, please use an iPhone or Android.” I imagine that it is much easier to find other author’s Series on a newer mobile device that supports the feature.
Once you have created a Series you are presented with this screen. Unlike Instagram, you are more limited on customization. This allows for more styling consistency between Series by different authors. The only type of media Medium Series supports is text and images. Medium is primarily a written based media platform. Other forms of media are there to enhance the story in most cases, not drive the story like Instagram.
Text options are nearly identical to Medium Stories although slightly more restrictive. On a screen your text is centered vertically without the option to change it. You also can only left-justify and center-justify your text. Other than that your options are the same.
It’s easy to add a new screen to your Series. You just click on the grey empty screen area with the plus sign in the middle. From there you can either start typing or add an image.
Once you have added an image you have a few options. You can choose to have the image fullscreen or inline and you can use the Tilt feature. You can also remove the image from this dropdown menu.
The tilt image option is cool, although a bit problematic. The reader is able to tilt their phone from side to side to pan through the picture, so it is a great way to include landscape images. The problem is that you aren’t able to adjust the starting point of image.
This is an image of my dog at the dog park, but she is on the left side of the landscape image so she doesn’t even show up on the screen without tilting over. This is a big problem because it usually is best practice not to have your subject in the center of the picture for a more interesting shot.
If you could adjust the portrait frame of the landscape image then you could better utilize this awesome feature.
Viewing a Series is a great experience on desktop. There is an interesting screen stacking design at the top that changes based on your upcoming screens. Also, along the bottom there is a progress bar that shows how far into the Series you are and how far you have left to go.
This view from the Series builder shows what it would look like to go through several screens in Medium Series. I have a simple story of a day in the life of my dog but publishers and other content creators could get very creative with the stories they tell.
Similarities and Differences
Medium Series and Instagram Stories take different approaches to story telling. I think the biggest difference in mindset is that Instagram Stories are meant to show a glimpse into someone’s life within a 24 hour period. Medium Series are persistent and able to be updated at any time. While both apps take different approaches to story telling, both platforms allow their users to tell stories.
Another difference is that Instagram puts visuals before text and Medium puts text before visuals. The two platforms have different intentions. Instagram is meant to quickly digest individual content whereas Medium is more long-form content consumption.
I don’t know how Series creation works on mobile so I may be wrong on this but it seems to me that the workflow is different between the two features. Instagram content can only be created from a mobile device and is meant to be done in the moment. Medium content is generally takes more time to create so I would image it would more likely be created from a laptop or desktop computer in most cases.
I think the optimum workflow for Series creation is on a desktop. If I were to be able to test creating a Series on a mobile device I might see it differently and this feature could be Medium’s attempt at encouraging more people to create content as it’s happening. So in this way the two features could be similar.
Advantages of Each
There are several advantages of both Medium Series and Instagram Stories.
Medium Series Advantages
For Medium Series you have the tilt feature. While it has its problems, it is a great way to be able to view landscape images on a phone and create a more interactive experience for the viewer.
Another advantage Medium has is a consistent look across author’s series. While this limits creativity for individual style, it strengthens Medium’s brand recognition.
Long-form content viewing is emphasized on Medium Series. I think this is better for readers because it provides more value to them. Within Series you have better story telling capabilities and the content isn’t so instantaneous. The reader can settle in and read a story with images.
Medium Series can also be viewed at any time so the reader has the option to go back to them or share them with a friend at any time. Also, the author can keep updating it to tell a long-term story as opposed to limiting it to one day.
Navigation is also great in Medium Series. You simply tap on the right side of the screen to progress and tap on the left side to go back. Instagram Stories only let you go forward.
Instagram Stories Advantages
For users like me, Instagram Stories is great because it works with older phones. This is probably due to the tilt feature in Medium Series. It must demand a newer version of Android.
One reason why Instagram is so popular is that users have a ton of customization options. This empowers people to get creative with their posts and show off their personality more.
While it was a bit tricky for me to find how to create a Story, it was easy for me to find my friend’s stories. If I used social media more it would have been more intuitive to create a story too.
Instagram stories are contained in a single 24 hour period. In some ways this is a disadvantage but for its use case this works well. This gives the viewer a more immediate sense of what their friends are up to.
When Should You Use Each One?
In the end both platforms are great. They have different use cases though. If you want to tell a long-form story that you can update periodically, Medium Series is your best bet. If you want to share your daily life with your friends, Instagram is the better place to be.
Medium is a blogging site whereas Instagram is social media. Their respective audiences have different motivations for going to each platform. There is also a large difference in active users per month. Instagram has a much bigger audience. For companies, Instagram stories would get you more exposure to your content. Instagram would get you the best bang for your buck for advertising purposes.
However, Medium is connected to Twitter. You could create a Medium Series and link to it on Twitter. Your followers would have to download the Medium app to view it so there would be a higher bounce rate but for the followers that follow your first Series, you could craft some interesting stories about your company that you couldn’t do with Instagram Stories.
Who is the Winner?
Both contenders have interesting approaches to story telling. Personally, I would more likely use Medium Series than Instagram Stories to share content with the world. I wish I could see what Medium Stories looks like on a mobile device. If I knew that they were easy for other people to find I would be interested in creating content for it. I like that you can create long-form content and that it is able to be viewed at a later date.
I think most people would pick Instagram Stories over Medium Series. The main reason is Instagram is a much bigger platform. I think people like the amount of customization they have with Instagram and would feel limited by Medium Series.
Who is the winner in your book? Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think?
Russell Andlauer is a Digital Product Designer at DevSimplified and a UX Freelancer. He is also finishing up his Bachelor’s of Science degree in the Web Design & Development program at Utah Valley University emphasizing in Interaction & Design.
