A story runs on a timer and moves on by itself. Holding a finger on the screen stops it; sliding sideways moves through a video story frame by frame; letting go starts it again where you left it.
Nobody who has not been shown this finds it, which tells you something about how stories are actually watched.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Stop a story from advancing while you read it.
- check_circle Move backwards and forwards inside a video story.
- check_circle Tell the gestures apart from the ones that skip.
- check_circle Post stories that survive being watched at speed.
Holding freezes the frame; sliding moves within the same story rather than to the next one.
touch_app Three gestures that look alike
A tap advances. A hold pauses. A slide seeks. They happen in the same place on the same screen, which is why people who mean to pause end up two stories further on and give up.
The distinction worth memorising is between the tap and the hold: a tap is a decision to leave, a hold is a decision to stay. Once that is automatic, the rest follows, and a story with a lot of text in it stops being a race.
Sliding within a video story is the part almost nobody uses. It is the only way to see a moment again without watching the whole thing a second time, and it is also how you check a detail — a price, a sign, a face — that went past in half a second.
Four gestures
The last tab is for the person posting rather than watching.
pan_tool The one to learn first
slow_motion_video Moving inside a video
skip_next Leaving
edit_note Design for the impatient
A tap means leave, a hold means stay. Post as though nobody will hold.
settings Using the gestures
- Hold to pause Anywhere on the picture.
- Keep holding and slide To move within a video story.
- Release to resume From where you stopped.
- Tap left to go back one When you have skipped by accident.
- Swipe down to leave Rather than tapping through the rest.
- Write your own stories for one second Of attention.
This page is how a story is watched. The curriculum step is how to make one worth watching: choosing the shape, trimming to what matters, and getting the point into the first seconds rather than the last.
At a glance
- 1Hold to pause
Press and hold a story to stop it advancing.
- 2Scrub videos
Hold and slide to move within a video story.
- 3Tap skips
Tapping moves to the next story.
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