Just under a year after its public launch, the Microsoft-owned LinkedIn social network is removing its Stories feature after it became apparent that users simply weren’t into using them in such a professional environment.
LinkedIn added Stories in late-September last year as a way for users to publish more casual content without affecting their profiles which essentially act as a digital resume. LinkedIn Stories worked in pretty much exactly the same way as the nearly identical Snapchat and Instagram Stories features that inspired it and provided users with a number of visual editing tools to enhance a video that would auto-delete after 24 hours.
“You wish videos could live on your profile, not disappear,” LinkedIn’s Liz Li wrote in a blog post published earlier today. “In developing Stories, we assumed people wouldn’t want informal videos attached to their profile, and that ephemerality would reduce barriers that people feel about posting. Turns out, you want to create lasting videos that tell your professional story in a more personal way and that showcase both your personality and expertise.”
While LinkedIn’s Stories are set to be removed by the end of the month, LinkedIn will be incorporating some of Stories’ editing tools into a new, more permanent, video feature that’s expected to launch in the near future.
“Now, we’re taking those learnings to evolve the Stories format into a reimagined video experience across LinkedIn that’s even richer and more conversational,” Li revealed in the same post. “We want to embrace mixed media and creative tools of Stories in a consistent way across our platform, while working to integrate it more tightly with your professional identity.”
LinkedIn’s removal of Stories comes just a month after Twitter removed its own version of 24-hour videos, Fleets. Much like LinkedIn, Twitter discovered that the format wasn’t really of interest to its millions of users who typically already use the platform’s regular post feature for publishing casual content and didn’t need an alternative option.
Microsoft recently added yet another take on Stories to its Xbox mobile apps. It’ll be interesting to see how long it lasts and if users are even viewing them.
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